Patent ID: 8012747

Claim:
A recombinant vesicular stomatitis virus vector expression system comprising: (a) a vesicular stomatitis virus vector particle (VSV) comprising a polynucleotide encoding a T7 RNA polymerase, wherein when the vector particle is used to infect a cell, the T7 polymerase is expressed in the cell; and (b) a recombinant plasmid vector comprising a polynucleotide comprising the following elements operably linked 5′ to 3′: (i) a T7 promoter, and (ii) a heterologous gene, wherein the heterologous gene comprises a sequence encoding an internal ribosome entry site (IRES), wherein when the recombinant plasmid vector is used to transfect said cell, a polypeptide is expressed from transcripts encoded by said heterologous gene in the cell.