Our long-term goal is the development of novel gene transfer strategies that are both safe and effective for the gene therapy of genetic diseases. Lentiviral vectors offer unique advantages for both ex-vivo and in-vivo gene transfer, because they can provide long-term gene expression of complex genetic structures even in non-dividing cells. However, important safety concerns and manufacturing hurdles remain. A considerable hazard is the contamination with a replication-competent Lentivirus (RCL), which can lead to spreading cytopathic effects and oncogenesis by iterative insertional mutagenesis. Large-scale manufacturing is preempted by (i) the unavailability of GMP-grade, high-titer, stable lentiviral packaging cell-lines and (ii) the inadequacy of current methods for vector particle concentration and purification. On the basis of extensive preliminary results, this proposal will attempt to remedy these important issues.
In Specific Aim 1, we will focus on the development and characterization of a novel supersplit, transient lentiviral packaging system, based on 7 non-overlapping plasmids, that makes it virtually impossible to generate an RCL or pre-RCL, while affording very high viral titers. This advance is made possible by separate VPR-mediated virion tethering of the viral protease.
In Specific Aim 2, we are testing the hypothesis that lentiviral vector particles can be effectively magnetized by clinical-grade super-paramagnetic nanoparticles to allow unparalleled large-scale concentration and purification of virions. The underlying principle is to express the human CD4 or CD34 transmembrane proteins in packaging cells, which are efficiently presented at the surface of virions upon budding, to allow specific binding of virions to magnetic particles covalently labeled with anti-CD4 or anti-CD34 antibodies. This approach also increases cell transduction rates in-vitro by opposing Brownian movement in a directional magnetic field.
In Specific Aim 3, we will build step-by-step under GMP conditions, supersplit, inducible, stably transfected lentiviral packaging cell-lines based on 293 cells to yield reproducibly high viral titers free of detectable RCL. CD4 or CD34 will be constitutively expressed in some of the cell-lines to permit subsequent magnetization of the virions. The aforementioned approaches will be ultimately evaluated by ex-vivo transfer of a complex beta-globin gene in hematopoietic stem cells of mice and humans followed by transplantation in a thalassemia mouse model and in SCIDINOD mice, respectively.
| Westerman, Karen A; Ao, Zhujun; Cohen, Eric A et al. (2007) Design of a trans protease lentiviral packaging system that produces high titer virus. Retrovirology 4:96 |
