The turbulent history of clinical trials in viral gene therapy has taught us important lessons about vector design and safety issues. Much effort was spent on analyzing genotoxicity after somatic integration of therapeutic DNA into the host genome. Based on these findings major improvements in vector design including the development of viral hybrid vectors for somatic integration have been achieved. This review provides a state-of-the-art overview of available hybrid vectors utilizing viruses for high transduction efficiencies in concert with various integration machineries for random and targeted integration patterns. It discusses advantages but also limitations of each vector system.
Keywords: PhiC31 integrase; Sleeping Beauty transposase; adeno-associated virus; adenovirus; herpes simplex virus; hybrid vector; retrovirus; somatic integration; targeted integration; zinc-finger nuclease.