gms | German Medical Science

During the past few years, the potential use of recombinant viral vectors in the treatment of a number of eye diseases has become a real possibility. Indeed, we are now reaching the stage where some of these vectors or paradigms are being tested in human clinical trials.

Here a summary will be given on what is known so far on the biology and immune response to intraocular injection of three different recombinant viral vectors - the high-capacity "gutless" adenovirus, adeno-associated virus (AAV) and lentivirus, so that we can understand the immunological effects of transgenes and viral vectors on the eye. These seem to be fairly benign, maybe due in part to the unique immunological environment of the eye.

As none of these viruses evoke a cell-mediated response, these vectors hold great promise for the treatment of chronic retinal diseases.