Vaccinia virus expression vector for selective replication in a tumor cell and introduction of exogenous nucleotide sequence into a tumor cell

1. A method of introducing an exogenous nucleotide sequence into a mammalian tumor cell, comprising:

providing a composition comprising a vaccinia virus expression vector with a negative thymidine kinase phenotype and a negative vaccinia virus growth factor phenotype, wherein the vector selectively replicates in the tumor cells but is substantially incapable of replicating in non-dividing cells and wherein the vector has enhanced safety;

contacting said mammalian tumor cell with said composition; and

expressing said exogenous nucleotide sequence in the tumor cell, thereby producing an amount of an expression product.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein said exogenous nucleotide sequence encodes a polypeptide.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the mammalian tumor cell is in a host, and wherein producing said amount of said expression product results in production of an antibody response by said host against said expression product.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein producing said amount of said expression product results in tumor cell death.

5. A method of inducing cell death of a dividing cancer cell, comprising contacting the dividing cancer cell with a composition comprising a vaccinia virus expression vector with a negative thymidine kinase phenotype and a negative vaccinia virus growth factor phenotype, thereby inducing cell death of the dividing cancer cell.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the vaccinia virus expression vector is a VVDDEGFP expression vector.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the mammalian tumor cell is a breast, colorectal, ovarian, pancreatic, melanoma, glioblastoma, hepatoma, small cell lung, non-small cell lung, muscle or prostate cell.

8. The method of claim 5 , wherein the vaccinia virus expression vector is a VVDDEGFP expression vector.

9. The method of claim 5 , wherein the dividing cancer cell is a mammalian tumor cell.

10. The method of claim 5 , wherein the dividing cancer cell is a breast, colorectal, ovarian, pancreatic, melanoma, glioblastoma, hepatoma, small cell lung, non-small cell lung, muscle or prostate cell.

11. The method of claim 9 , wherein contacting said dividing mammalian tumor cell with said composition is performed in vivo and said exogenous nucleotide sequence is expressed in vivo, thereby producing an amount of an expression product in vivo.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the tumor cell comprises a dividing cancer cell, and wherein the method induces cell death of the dividing cancer cell in vivo.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein said exogenous nucleotide sequence comprises a suicide gene.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein said suicide gene comprises cytosine deaminase.

15. The method of claim 13 , wherein said suicide gene comprises carboxypeptidase G2.

16. The method of claim 1 , wherein said exogenous nucleotide sequence comprises an imaging gene.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein said imaging gene comprises a somatostatin receptor.

18. The method of claim 16 , wherein said imaging gene comprises a transferrin receptor.

19. The method of claim 1 , wherein said exogenous nucleotide sequence comprises a tumor suppressor gene.

20. The method of claim 1 , wherein said exogenous nucleotide sequence comprises a pathogenic antigen gene.