Viruses 2013, 5, 1702-1718; doi:10.3390/v5071702 OPEN ACCESS viruses ISSN 1999-4915 www.mdpi.com/journal/viruses Review Feline Foamy Virus-Based Vectors: Advantages of an Authentic Animal Model †,‡ † Weibin Liu , Janet Lei , Yang Liu, Dragana Slavkovic Lukic, Ann-Mareen Räthe, # Qiuying Bao, Timo Kehl, Anne Bleiholder, Torsten Hechler and Martin Löchelt * Department of Genome Modifications, Research Program Infection and Cancer, German Cancer Research Center, Im Neuenheimer Feld 242, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany; E-Mails:
[email protected] (W.L.);
[email protected] (J.L.);
[email protected] (Y.L.);
[email protected] (D.S.L.);
[email protected] (A.-M.R.);
[email protected] (Q.B.);
[email protected] (T.K.);
[email protected] (T.H.) † These authors contributed equally to this work. ‡ Current address: Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, 200 First Street SW, Rochester, MN 55905, USA. # Current address: Department of Biochemistry, Heidelberg Pharma GmbH, Schriesheimer Str. 101, 68526 Ladenburg, Germany. * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; E-Mail:
[email protected]; Tel.: +49-6221-424933; Fax: +49-6221-424932. Received: 1 March 2013; in revised form: 13 June 2013 / Accepted: 25 June 2013 / Published: 12 July 2013 Abstract: New-generation retroviral vectors have potential applications in vaccination and gene therapy. Foamy viruses are particularly interesting as vectors, because they are not associated to any disease. Vector research is mainly based on primate foamy viruses (PFV), but cats are an alternative animal model, due to their smaller size and the existence of a cognate feline foamy virus (FFV).