Ad5/RGD-Cre Chimeric Adenovirus

The Ad5/RGD-Cre chimeric adenovirus is a specially engineered genetic tool for the efficient, site-specific recombination of DNA in a variety of target cells. This vector features a "fiber-modified" Ad5/RGD backbone, with the RGD motif contained in the HI loop of its fiber helix, enabling the virus to bind to αvβ3 and αvβ5 integrins. This modification allows the vector to efficiently transduce cells that typically have low CAR expression but high integrin levels, such as vascular endothelial cells, dendritic cells, and certain malignant cell populations. The vector is replication-deficient (dE1/E3) and delivers the Cre recombinase gene, which encodes a 38 kDa protein from bacteriophage P1 that catalyzes recombination between two 34 bp loxP recognition sites. This adenovirus system provides a robust and non-integrative approach to delivering high levels of Cre recombinase, ensuring transient but highly efficient enzymatic activity within the host cell nucleus.

The primary application of the Ad5/RGD-Cre chimeric adenovirus is to induce conditional gene expression or gene knockout in "difficult-to-transduce" cells. Researchers have used this vector to trigger Cre-mediated recombination in fluxed cell lines or transgenic animal models, enabling spatiotemporally controlled study of gene function. It holds particular value in immunology for gene manipulation of dendritic cells and in angiogenesis for targeting endothelial cells. In the laboratory, the Ad5/RGD-Cre virus is used to excise the Lox-Stop-Lox (LSL) box, selectively activating reporter genes (such as GFP or RFP) or functional transgenes in target cell populations. Furthermore, this system is a powerful tool for lineage tracing and validating the effectiveness of Cre-dependent gene models. Its high transduction efficiency and broad tropism make it an important resource for researchers to perform complex genome editing in primary cells and CAR-deficient cell types.