Patent ID: 7122180

Claim:
A nucleic acid construct which encodes non-infectious HIV particles, the construct comprising: a) at least one replacement mutation in the gag gene of a HIV genome of a HIV particle wherein the gag gene encodes the amino acid sequence of the nucleocapsid (NC) protein, wherein the replacement mutation produces a single amino acid substitution in at least one position selected from the group consisting of the 5′ flanking region (amino acids 1–14 of SEQ ID NO: 8), the 5′ Cys-His box (amino acids 15–28 of SEQ ID NO: 8), to peptide linker region (amino acids 29–35 of SEQ ID NO: 8), the 3′ Cys-His box (amino acids 36–49 of SEQ ID NO: 8) and the 3′ flanking region (amino acids 50–55 of SEQ ID NO: 8), such that the replacement mutation prevents viral RNA packaging; and b) at least one further replacement mutation in the pol gene of said HIV genome selected from the group consisting of (i) at least one replacement mutation in the region of the pol gene that encodes the amino acid sequence in the finger domain (amino acid 1 to 84 of SEQ ID NO: 4) of the reverse transcriptase (RT) protein, wherein the replacement mutation produces a single amino acid substitution in the finger domain such that a dysfunctional reverse transcriptase protein is produced to prevent viral RNA conversion to DNA and (ii) at least one replacement mutation in the region of the pol gene that encodes the amino acid sequence of the catalytic (amino acids 51–212 of SEQ ID NO: 6) or multimerization domain (amino acids 1–50 of SEQ ID NO: 6) of the Integrase (In) protein, wherein the replacement mutation produces a single amino acid substitution in the catalytic or multimerization domain such that dysfunctional Integrase protein is produced to prevent a transcribed viral DNA molecule from integrating into a host cell genome.