Delivery vehicle

Abstract

The invention relates in one aspect to a pharmaceutical composition comprising a nucleic acid delivery vehicle for delivering a deliverable nucleic acid into a bacterial cell, wherein the delivery vehicle comprises a deliverable nucleic acid packaged into one or more bacteriophage coat proteins, and wherein the delivery vehicle is capable of infecting the bacterial cell to introduce the deliverable nucleic acid into the cell, following which the deliverable nucleic acid is capable of forming a plasmid in the cell and being transmitted to one or more different bacterial cells by conjugation and not by infection. Compositions including a pharmaceutical composition comprising the delivery vehicle, and methods involving use or manufacture of the delivery vehicle, are also disclosed.

1 . A pharmaceutical composition comprising a nucleic acid delivery vehicle for delivering a deliverable nucleic acid into a bacterial cell, wherein the delivery vehicle comprises a deliverable nucleic acid packaged into one or more bacteriophage coat proteins, and the deliverable nucleic acid comprises:
 (a) a vegetative replication origin and one or more genes encoding one or more nucleic acid replication proteins that allow vegetative nucleic acid replication of the deliverable nucleic acid;   (b) a transmittal nucleic acid sequence comprising an origin of transfer and one or more relaxasome nucleic acid sequences encoding relaxasome functions required for plasmid mobilisation during conjugation;   (c) one or more bacteriophage packaging signal sequences that allow packaging of the deliverable nucleic acid into the one or more bacteriophage coat proteins; and   (d) a selected nucleic acid of interest;   such that the delivery vehicle is capable of infecting the bacterial cell to introduce the deliverable nucleic acid into the cell, following which the deliverable nucleic acid is capable of forming a plasmid in the cell and being transmitted to one or more different bacterial cells by conjugation and not by infection.   
     
     
         2 .- 27 . (canceled)