And yes, someday we will tame the HIV virus, too. This work, and its problems, should not be seen as an end but a beginning. Already scientists modify bacteria for special industrial uses, and the time will come when they do so for medical uses too. Nor will that, either, be the end of this technology. This diagram shows how AAV viruses are constructed to contain a given gene.
E is the final virus constructed.
D is one of the cultered cells in which construction occurs. The plasmids A and B first enter the cell D, where the new virus coat is constructed and the desired gene is inserted into it under the guidance of the helper virus genome. The constructed virus E is then released from the cell and the helper virus, which was engineered to contain a mutat- ed gene inactivating it at normal temperatures, is destroyed by heat. The cell D is also usually destroyed in construction of the virus. At the end the new viruses are harvested and used in therapy.