A Versatile Gene Delivery System for Efficient and Tumor Specific Gene Manipulation in vivo

The Replication-Competent Avian Sarcoma-leukosis virus long-terminal repeat with splice acceptor (RCAS)-Tumor Virus A (TVA) gene delivery system has been created based on the fact that avian sarcoma leukosis virus subgroup A only infects cells expressing its receptor, TVA. This system has been successfully applied to create various mouse models for human cancers. Here we briefly discuss the advantages and the potential caveats of using this RCAS-TVA gene delivery system in cancer research. We also introduce and discuss how our newly designed RCAS-based gene delivery system (RCI-Oncogene, for RCAS-Cre-IRES-Oncogene) allows concise and efficient manipulation of gene expression in tumors in vivo, and how this system can be used to rapidly study the biological function of gene(s) and/or the collaborative actions of multiple genes in regulating tumor initiation, progression and/or metastasis.