Patent ID: 7998733

Claim:
A recombinant poxvirus vector comprising a nucleic acid sequence operably linked to a poxviral promoter that directs transcription of the nucleic acid sequence to generate a transcribed viral replicon derived from a virus and capable of amplification as RNA, wherein the transcribed viral replicon comprises at least one viral promoter operably linked to a heterologous sequence of interest, and nucleic acid molecules encoding an nsP2 polymerase specific for replication of the viral replicon, wherein the nsP2 polymerase is mutated at leucine 713 and is changed to an amino acid selected from the group consisting of alanine, arginine, glutamine, threonine, and phenylalanine; wherein the heterologous sequence of interest is downstream to the polymerase in the replicon, and wherein the viral replicon does not comprise nucleic acid molecules encoding a structural protein from the virus from which the replicon is derived.