Human Klf4-Oct4-Sox2-c-Myc (KOSM) Adenovirus

Somatic cells can be induced into pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) with a combination of four transcription factors, Oct4/Sox2/Klf4/c-Myc or Oct4/Sox2/Nanog/LIN28. A major limitation of this technology is the use of potentially harmful genome-integrating viruses. Adenovirus is unique from other viral vectors like lentiviruses and retroviruses because it does not incorporate any of its own genes into the targeted host and therefore avoids the potential for insertional mutagenesis. Another advantage of using adenoviruses is that they only need to present for a brief amount of time in order for effective reprogramming to take place.

This KOSM adenovirus express all 4 human transcription factors (Klf4, Oct3/4, Sox2 and c-Myc) joined by three different self-cleaving 2A peptides and IRES, which support efficient polycistronic expression from a single promoter and reduce the number of viruses necessary to reprogram somatic cells.