Adenovirus-Mediated Gene Delivery: An Overview

Adenoviruses, which were first isolated in the 1950s, have been developed as gene-delivery vehicles, or vectors, since the early 1980s (1 ). The adenoviruses constitute the Adenoviridae family, which is divided into two genera: the Aviadenovirus genus infects only birds, whereas the Mastadenovirus genus contains viruses that infect a range of mammalian species. Human adenoviruses are classified into six subgroups based on the percentage of guanine and cytosine in the DNA molecules and the ability to agglutinate red blood cells. They are further subdivided into more than 50 serotypes, primarily on the basis of neutralization assays (reviewed in ref. 2 ).