AAV is a tiny, single-stranded, DNA-nonenveloped virus that is a member of the Parvoviridae family and genus Dependoparvovirus. AAV can infect both dividing and nondividing cells, however it has very low immunogenicity and toxicity while being contagious to humans and several primate species. AAVs exhibit a variety of tropisms and infect a broad spectrum of cell types when infecting host cells, typically by integration into the infected cells' DNA. AAVs are excellent candidates for gene therapy applications because of all these features.

For more information: adeno associated virus aav vectors in the cns