Patent ID: 8298826

Claim:
A method of expressing a therapeutic or an antigenic protein or peptide in an individual, the method comprising: administering to the individual an effective amount of a chimeric virus comprising a heterologous nucleic acid sequence encoding the therapeutic or the antigenic protein or peptide, or a pharmaceutical composition thereof, wherein the chimeric virus is produced by a method comprising culturing a host cell which comprises: a Simian Immunodeficiency Virus (SIV) Gag-Pol nucleic acid sequence under control of an expression control sequence, wherein said SIV Gag-Pol nucleic acid sequence encodes an SIV capsid, a vector comprising a Human Immunodeficiency Virus type 2 (HIV-2) packaging signal and the heterologous nucleic acid sequence under control of an expression control sequence, SIV accessory genes necessary for viral assembly, and a viral envelope coding sequence under control of expression control sequences; wherein said culturing results in said vector being packaged in the SIV capsid to produce the chimeric virus.