Adenovirus transfections

[steve morse]

Hope someone out there might be able help with some information - one
of my colleagues recently returned from a meeting where he heard that
using adenovirus constructs to monitor promoter activity can sometimes
be problematic in that the promoter sometimes loses its specificty.
Having done a literature search I couldn't find much information on
this area - there seems to be some evidence that the CFTR promoter
loses its specificty but quite a few other reports showing that tissue
specificty is retained.  Does anyone have any information on this ?
Is the cloning site on the adenoviral construct important (i.e. E1 or
E3 deletions - I know these areas affect immunogenicity) ?  My
colleague also mentioned that there was some talk about vectors
encoding silencer elements to "shield" the promoter from cis or trans
effects - any info. ?

All comments appreciated.  Thanks.

Stewart Martin
University of Nottingham

stewart.martin at nottingham.ac.uk