Adenoviral vector-based strategies against infectious disease and cancer

Adenoviral vectors are widely employed against infectious diseases or cancers, as they can elicit specific antibody responses and T cell responses when they are armed with foreign genes as vaccine carriers, and induce apoptosis of the cancer cells when they are genetically modified for cancer therapy. In this review, we summarize the biological characteristics of adenovirus (Ad) and the latest development of Ad vector-based strategies for the prevention and control of emerging infectious diseases or cancers. Strategies to circumvent the pre-existing neutralizing antibodies which dampen the immunogenicity of Ad-based vaccines are also discussed.