Insidious Insights: Implications of viral vector engineering for pathogen enhancement
Name
s41434-021-00312-3.pdf
Description
Published version
Size
645.11 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
f7766920a339e7f69e47fd6c4dadf3e9
Author(s)
Sandbrink, Jonas B
Alley, Ethan C
Watson, Matthew C
Koblentz, Gregory D
Esvelt, Kevin M
Date Issued
2022
Journal
Gene Therapy
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Citation
Sandbrink, Jonas B, Alley, Ethan C, Watson, Matthew C, Koblentz, Gregory D and Esvelt, Kevin M. 2022. "Insidious Insights: Implications of viral vector engineering for pathogen enhancement." Gene Therapy.
Version
Final published version
Abstract
AbstractOptimizing viral vectors and their properties will be important for improving the effectiveness and safety of clinical gene therapy. However, such research may generate dual-use insights relevant to the enhancement of pandemic pathogens. In particular, reliable and generalizable methods of immune evasion could increase viral fitness sufficient to cause a new pandemic. High potential for misuse is associated with (1) the development of universal genetic elements for immune modulation, (2) specific insights on capsid engineering for antibody evasion applicable to viruses with pandemic potential, and (3) the development of computational methods to inform capsid engineering. These risks may be mitigated by prioritizing non-viral delivery systems, pharmacological immune modulation methods, non-genetic vector surface modifications, and engineering methods specific to AAV and other viruses incapable of unassisted human-to-human transmission. We recommend that computational vector engineering and the publication of associated code and data be limited to AAV until a technical solution for preventing malicious access to viral engineering tools has been established.
MIT Department
Program in Media Arts and Sciences (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1038/S41434-021-00312-3
