Patent ID: 6899871

Claim:
A method of treating a subject having a cell proliferative disorder, the method comprising: a) contacting the subject with a therapeutically effective amount of a replication competent retrovirus comprising: a nucleic acid sequence encoding a retroviral GAG protein; a nucleic acid sequence encoding a retroviral POL protein; a nucleic acid sequence encoding a retroviral envelope; an oncoretroviral polynucleotide sequence comprising Long-Terminal Repeat (LTR) sequences at the 5′ or 3′ or 5′ and 3′ end of the oncoretroviral polynucleotide sequence; a cassette comprising an internal ribosome entry site (IRES) operably linked to a heterologous nucleic acid sequence encoding a polypeptide that converts a nontoxic prodrug to a toxic drug, wherein the cassette is positioned 5′ to the 3′ LTR sequence and/or 3′ to the sequence encoding the retroviral envelope; and cis-acting sequences for reverse transcription, packaging and integration in a target cell; b) contacting the subject with a nontoxic prodrug that is converted into a toxic drug by the polypeptide.