Preclinical and biological studies using recombinant adenoviruses encoding aquaporins 1 and 5

In this report, we have reviewed several of our recent studies using replication-deficient recombinant adenoviruses encoding either aquaporin 1 or 5. The aquaporins are a relatively recently described family of water channels that mediate osmotically-driven transmembrane water permeability. Recombinant adenoviruses are highly efficient gene transfer vectors and readily result in significant levels of transgene expression. These aggregate studies provide examples of how such "tools" can be used in a novel way to address problems of both clinical and biological significance.