Baculoviral vectors for gene delivery: a review

Baculovirus has emerged as a novel vector for in vivo and in vitro gene delivery. In addition, the applications of baculovirus-mediated gene transfer have been explosively expanded to drug screening, eucaryotic gene display, cancer therapy and tissue engineering, etc. The capability of baculovirus viral envelope for protein/peptide display also renders itself a potential vaccine delivery platform. This paper reviews the history, factors influencing baculovirus-mediated gene delivery and emerging in vitro, in vivo and ex vivo applications. Efforts aimed at overcoming current existing bottlenecks and recent progresses in addressing the safety concerns are particularly emphasized.