Lentiviruses as gene transfer agents for delivery to non-dividing cells.

Lentiviral vectors are proving to be effective agents for the direct delivery and sustained expression of a transgene in several tissues, including brain, retina, muscle and liver. Significant progress was achieved in the biosafety of HIV-derived vectors by eliminating all the viral sequences non-essential for transduction. Other vectors have also been developed from non-primate lentiviruses.