Cre and RFP expressing RGD fiber modified Adenovirus

Since the cell entry of adenovirus is dependent on the initial recognition of the coxsackie-adenovirus receptor (CAR) on the surafce, the infection efficiency of adenovirus is very low for cells with low or no CAR receptor. An Arg-Gly-Asp (RGD) motif was introduced in the surface-exposed loop of the adenovirus fiber knob, this enables the adenovirus to bypass CAR and mediate cell entry via RGD binding integrins.

RDG modified adenovirus can be used for "retargeting" cells that regular adenovirus doesn't work well. The infection effeciency of RDG modified adenovirus can be tens or hundreds of times higher than standard Ad5 in some cells, including human or mouse macrophages and T cells etc.

This is a RGD modified replication-deficient adenovirus expressing codon optimized Cre and RFP under a CMV promoter. The Cre and RFP are separated by a 2A peptide.