Patent 9249427 was granted and assigned to Oregon Health & Science University on February, 2016 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
The present invention relates to recombinant rhesus cytomegalovirus (RhCMV) and human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) vectors encoding heterologous antigens, such as pathogen-specific antigens or tumor antigens, which may be used, for example, for the treatment or prevention of infectious disease or cancer. The recombinant RhCMV or HCMV vectors elicit and maintain high level cellular immune responses specific for the heterologous antigen while including deletions in one or more genes essential or augmenting for CMV replication, dissemination or spread.