Premade Lentivirus Particles

Lentivirus is a subfamily of the retrovirus family. Lentiviruses can deliver significant amounts of genetic information into host cells and integrate it into the cellular genome. Co-transfection of packaging plasmids and transfer vector into a packaging cell line allows efficient production of lentiviral particles that are released into the supernatant of the cells. Viral particles harvested from the cell supernatant can transduce a wide range of both dividing and non-dividing mammalian cell types. Upon infection with lentiviral particles, the single-stranded RNA (ssRNA) is reverse-transcribed and the resulting double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) stably integrates into the genome of the host providing for long term transcription of the gene of interest or shRNA. Genetically-engineered lentiviruses are therefore used as one of the most efficient tools of gene delivery.