Poxviral/Retroviral Chimeric Vectors Allow Cytoplasmic Production of Transducing Defective Retroviral Particles

AbstractDefective vaccinia viruses were constructed that express functional Moloney murine leukemia virus-based vector genomes, giving rise to substantial titers of transduction-competent retrovirus particles after infection of a retroviral packaging cell line. For this purpose, the proviral retrovirus genome, engineered into the vaccinia virus mutant, was subjected to several modifications, including the replacement of retroviral promoter sequences by vaccinia virus sequences and the precise fusion of the transcription stop signal downstream of and the removal of such signals within the transcription unit, allowing cytoplasmic transcription of distinct full-length retroviral transcripts. Vaccinia-mediated expression of retroviral vector particles could be observed as early as 3 h postinfection and resulted in stable transduction of NIH/3T3 target cells at higher titers than the control performed by conventional plasmid transfections. Thus at least part of the vaccinia life cycle and retroviral assembly can occur concomitantly. Due to the favorable properties of vaccinia vectors, including high coding capacity, stability, and wide host range, defective vaccinia viral/retroviral chimeric vectors are promising tools for gene therapy applications

Three Worlds of Compliance or Four? The EU-15 Compared to New Member States

Starting from the findings of an earlier compliance study covering the 15 'old' Member States of the European Union, which identified three 'worlds of compliance', this article seeks to establish whether or not the new Member States from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) represent a separate world of compliance. We present empirical findings from a research project on the implementation of three EU Directives from the field of working time and equal treatment in four CEE countries. The evidence suggests that the new Member States display implementation styles that are similar to a few countries in the EU-15. The expectation that the new Member States might behave according to their own specific logic, such as significantly decreasing their compliance efforts after accession in order to take 'revenge' for the strong pressure of conditionality, is not supported by our case studies. Instead, all four new Member States appear to fall within a group that could be dubbed the 'world of dead letters'. It is crucial to highlight, however, that this specific 'world of compliance', characterized by politicized transposition processes and systematic application and enforcement problems, also includes two countries from the EU-15. Copyright (c) 2008 The Author(s).