Virus-Based RNA Silencing Agents and Virus-Derived Expression Vectors as Gene Therapy Vehicles

Background: In consideration of recent developments in understanding the genomics and proteomics of viruses, the use of viral DNA / RNA sequences as well as their gene expression schemes, have found new in-roads towards the prognosis and therapy of diseases. Correspondingly, the sphere of the patenting scenario has expanded significantly. Objectives: The current review addresses patented inventions concerning the use of virus sequences as gene silencing machineries and inventions concerning the generation and application of viral sequences as expression vectors. Furthermore, this review also discusses the employment of these patents for clinical, agricultural and biotechnological applications. Method: Considering these objectives, the Delphion Research Intellectual Property Network database was searched using keywords such as “gene silencing”, “engineered viruses” and “expression vectors” and descriptions of recent patents on the said topics were discussed. Conclusion: Despite several recent advances in the use of viruses as disease therapy vehicles and biotechnological vectors, these developments have yet to be proven effective in practice, in clinical and field trials.