Table 2 Popular viral vectors for imaging in cancer and neuroscience research
From: The regulation of reporter transgene expression for diverse biological imaging applications
Virus | Primary Application | Approximate Packaging Limit | Stable Integrant in the Genome | Notable Features |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Lentivirus | Cancer and neuroscience | 7 kb | Yes | VSV-G pseudotyped virus is broadly infective. Suitable for long-term transgene expression, reasonable packaging limit |
Adenovirus | Cancer and neuroscience | 8 kb | No | Produces to high titers in engineered packaging cells, delivers transient transgene expression |
AAV (adeno-associated virus) | Cancer and neuroscience | 4.5 kb | Potentially yes | Versatile as vector tropism is serotype-dependent |
Pseudo-rabies virus | Neuroscience | 8–10 kb | No | Travels polysynaptically in the retrograde direction |
Yellow fever virus | Neuroscience | 11 kb | No | Good packaging size compared with AAV, but high immunogenicity limits certain applications |
CAV-2 (canine adenovirus) | Neuroscience | ~30 kb | No | Preferential tropism for neurons, large packaging size and low immunogenicity |
HSV (herpes simplex virus) | Neuroscience | 30–50 kb | No | Large packaging size and ability to trace nerves in the anterograde direction |
