Adenovirus Cell and Immune Interactions

Ever since their discovery in the early 1950s, human adenoviruses (HAdVs), the cause of respiratory diseases of young children, have been the subject of intense basic research as well as efforts to engineer HAdV vectors to ameliorate human diseases. Although much information has been gleaned over the past 67 years from laboratory and clinical investigations, we still have an incomplete picture of the critical associations of HAdV with host cells and specific components of the immune system. An ability to uncover additional information will likely influence the future success (or failure) for exploiting HAdV vectors for gene and vaccine therapies.

Each contribution in this series will highlight the efforts and progress made to acquire basic knowledge of adenovirus host interactions and will indicate particular areas that remain to be uncovered. Topics in this new series include key steps in HAdV–host cell interactions as well as structure-based investigations of virus and virus capsid protein associations with cell receptors and innate immune molecules. These topics will culminate with discussions on examples of HAdV vector design and how these approaches are influenced by the accumulation of knowledge of host–vector interactions.