Detection of Replication-Competent Retrovirus / 中国肿瘤生物治疗杂志

Retroviral vectors are the most used gene delivery vehicle in human gene therapy.When the therapeutic gene is packagedfrom producer cell line, one has to determined whether thereplication-competent retrovirus(RCR) is being generated. In this study, two methods, namely the marker rescue assay and RT/PCR, were employed to detect RCR in the cells. While the marker rescue assay can detect RCR with a limit at 6?102CFU/ml, RT/PCR can be used to detect RCR at as low as lCFU/103ml. Combining the specificity of the marker rescue assay and the sensitivity of RT/PCR, both assays together should serve as an adequate test for detecting the generation of RCR in retroviral producer cell lines.