Production and Use of Gesicles for Nucleic Acid Delivery.

Over-expression of the vesicular stomatitis virus glycoprotein (VSVG) in mammalian cells can induce the formation of VSVG-pseudotyped vesicles (named "gesicles") from membrane budding. Its use as a nucleic acid delivery tool is still poorly documented. Naked-plasmid DNA can be delivered in animal cells with gesicles in presence of hexadimethrine bromide (polybrene). However, little is known about gesicle manufacturing process and conditions to obtain successful nucleic acid delivery. In this study, gesicles production process using polyethylenimine (PEI)-transfected HEK293 cells was developed by defining the VSVG-plasmid concentration, the DNA:PEI mass ratio, and the time of gesicle harvest. Furthermore, parameters described in the literature relevant for nucleic acid delivery such as (i) component concentrations in assembly mixture, (ii) component addition order, (iii) incubation time, and (iv) polybrene concentration were tested by assessing the transfection capacity of the gesicles complexed with a green fluorescent protein (GFP)-coding plasmid. Interestingly, freezing/thawing cycles and storage at + 4 °C, - 20 °C, and - 80 °C did not reduce gesicles' ability to transfer plasmid DNA. Transfection efficiency of 55% and 22% was obtained for HeLa cells and for hard-to-transfect cells such as human myoblasts, respectively. For the first time, gesicles were used for delivery of a large plasmid (18-kb) with 42% of efficiency and for enhanced green fluorescent protein (eGFP) gene silencing with siRNA (up to 60%). In conclusion, gesicles represent attractive bioreagents with great potential to deliver nucleic acids in mammalian cells.

Gene Transfer of ZMapp Antibodies Mediated by Recombinant Adeno-Associated Virus Protects Against Ebola Infections.

Vectored delivery of the ZMapp antibody cocktail (c2G4, c4G7, and c13C6) by using recombinant adeno-associated viruses (rAAVs) could be useful for preventive immunization against Ebola virus infections because rAAVs can generate long-term antibody expression. Three rAAVs (serotype 9) encoding chimeric ZMapp antibodies were produced by triple-plasmid transfection up to 10 L-scale in WAVE bioreactors using HEK293 cells grown in suspension/serum-free conditions. Efficacy of AAV-c2G4 via intravenous (i.v.), intramuscular (i.m.), and intranasal (i.n.) routes of administration was evaluated in mice with two different doses of 2.7 × 1010 and 13.0 × 1010 vector genomes (vg). The best protective efficacies after Ebola challenge were obtained with the i.v. and i.m. routes. Serum concentrations of ZMapp antibodies positively correlated with survivability. Efficacy of the rAAV-ZMapp cocktail was then evaluated at a higher dose of 30.0 × 1010 vg. It conferred a more robust protection (90% i.v. and 60% i.m.) than rAAV-c4G7 (30%) and rAAV-c13C6 (70%), both administered separately at the same dose. Delivery of rAAV-c2G4 alone achieved up to 100% protection (100% i.v. and 90% i.m.) at the same dose. In conclusion, the preventive treatment was effective in mice. However, no advantage was observed for using the rAAV-ZMapp cocktail in comparison to the utilization of the single rAAV-c2G4.

Manufacturing of recombinant adeno-associated viruses using mammalian expression platforms.

Manufacturing practices for recombinant adeno-associated viruses (AAV) have improved in the last decade through the development of new platforms in conjunction with better production and purification methods. In this review, we discuss the advantages and limitations of the most popular systems and methods employed with mammalian cell platforms. Methods and systems such as transient transfection, packaging and producer cells and adenovirus and herpes simplex virus are described. In terms of best production yields, they are comparable with about 104 -105 vector genomes produced per cell but transient transfection of HEK293 cells is by far the most commonly used. For small-scale productions, AAV can be directly purified from the producing cell lysate by ultracentrifugation on a CsCl or iodixanol-step gradient whereas large-scale purification requires a combination of multiple steps. Micro/macrofiltration (i.e. including tangential flow filtration and/or dead-end filtration) and chromatography based-methods are used for large-scale purification. Purified AAV products must then be quantified and characterized to ensure quality. Recent purification methods and current analytical techniques are reviewed here. Finally, AAV technology is very promising, but manufacturing improvements are still required to meet the needs of affordable, safe and effective AAV vectors essential for licensing of gene therapy clinical protocols.

Antibody Delivery Mediated by Recombinant Adeno-associated Virus for the Treatment of Various Chronic and Infectious Diseases.

Monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) based-therapies are currently one of the most successful strategies to treat immune disorders, cancer and infectious diseases. Vectors derived from adenoassociated virus (AAV) are very attractive to deliver the genes coding the mAbs because they allow long-term expression thus, reducing the number of administrations. They can also penetrate biological barriers such as the blood-brain-barrier to transduce cells localized in immunoprivileged organs. Recent animal studies with AAV have demonstrated the capacity of AAV to deliver sufficient quantity of antibodies to confer an efficient immunoprotection against chronic and infectious diseases for several months to years. The treatment was successfully applied either for prophylaxis or therapeutic use, depending on the disease and its progression. In this review, we discuss the advantages and the limitations of AAV for mAb and immunoadhesin delivery. Recent advances in vector design and antibody engineering are also presented. Optimization of the vector design can improve the kinetic and the level of mAbs expression whereas protein engineering can enhance transgene product properties. Furthermore, an exhaustive review of pre-clinical studies for chronic diseases including Alzheimer disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and cancer is presented as well as for infectious diseases.

Virus-Like Particles Derived from HIV-1 for Delivery of Nuclear Proteins: Improvement of Production and Activity by Protein Engineering.

Virus-like particles (VLPs) derived from retroviruses and lentiviruses can be used to deliver recombinant proteins without the fear of causing insertional mutagenesis to the host cell genome. In this study we evaluate the potential of an inducible lentiviral vector packaging cell line for VLP production. The Gag gene from HIV-1 was fused to a gene encoding a selected protein and it was transfected into the packaging cells. Three proteins served as model: the green fluorescent protein and two transcription factors-the cumate transactivator (cTA) of the inducible CR5 promoter and the human Krüppel-like factor 4 (KLF4). The sizes of the VLPs were 120-150 nm in diameter and they were resistant to freeze/thaw cycles. Protein delivery by the VLPs reached up to 100% efficacy in human cells and was well tolerated. Gag-cTA triggered up to 1100-fold gene activation of the reporter gene in comparison to the negative control. Protein engineering was required to detect Gag-KLF4 activity. Thus, insertion of the VP16 transactivation domain increased the activity of the VLPs by eightfold. An additional 2.4-fold enhancement was obtained by inserting nuclear export signal. In conclusion, our platform produced VLPs capable of efficient protein transfer, and it was shown that protein engineering can be used to improve the activity of the delivered proteins as well as VLP production.

Efficacy and site-specificity of adenoviral vector integration mediated by the phage φC31 integrase.

Adenoviral vectors deleted of all their viral genes (helper-dependent [HD]) are efficient gene-transfer vehicles. Because transgene expression is rapidly lost in actively dividing cells, we investigated the feasibility of using phage φC31 integrase (φC31-Int) to integrate an HD carrying an attB site and the puromycin resistance gene into human cells (HeLa) and murine myoblasts (C2C12) by co-infection with a second HD-expressing φC31-Int. Because the HD genome is linear, we also investigated whether its circularization, through expression of Cre using a third HD, affects integration. Efficacy and specificity were determined by scoring the number of puromycin-resistant colonies and by sequencing integration sites. Unexpectedly, circularization of HD was unnecessary and it even reduced the integration efficacy. The maximum integration efficacy achieved was 0.5% in HeLa cells and 0.1% in C2C12 myoblasts. Up to 76% of the integration events occurred at pseudo attP sites and previously characterized hotspots were found. A small (two- to three-fold) increase in the number of γ-H2AX positive foci, accompanied by no noticeable change in γ-H2AX expression, indicated the low genotoxicity of φC31-Int. In conclusion, integration of HD mediated by φC31-Int is an attractive alternative to engineer cells, because it permits site-specific integration of large DNA fragments with low genotoxicity.

Strength and muscle specificity of a compact promoter derived from the slow troponin I gene in the context of episomal (gutless adenovirus) and integrating (lentiviral) vectors.

BACKGROUND: Gutless adenovirus (helper-dependent adenoviral vector; HDAd) and lentiviral vectors (LV) are attractive vectors for the gene therapy of muscle diseases. Because the organization of their DNA (episomal versus integrated) differs, we investigated whether the strength and specificity of ΔUSEx3, a novel muscle-specific promoter previously tested with plasmid, were maintained in the context of these vectors. METHODS: Two HDAds expressing ß-galactosidase regulated by ΔUSEx3 or CAG [cytomegalovirus (CMV) enhancer/ß-actin promoter], and three LV expressing green fluorescent protein regulated by ΔUSEx3, CMV or a modified skeletal α-actin promoter (SPcΔ5-12), were constructed. Gene expression was compared in cell culture and after intravenous (HDAd only) and intramuscular injection of mice. RESULTS: Irrespective of the vector used, ΔUSEx3 remained poorly active in nonmuscle cells and tissues. In myotubes, ΔUSEx3 was as strong as CMV and SPcΔ5-12, although it was ten-fold weaker than CAG, a proven powerful promoter in muscle. In cell culture, ΔUSEx3 activity in the context of LV was more stable than CMV, indicating it is less prone to silencing. In the context of HDAd, the behavior of ΔUSEx3 in skeletal muscle mirrored that of cell culture (10% of the CAG activity and half the number of transduced fibers). Surprisingly, in muscles treated with LV, ΔUSEx3 activity was five-fold lower than SPcΔ5-12. CONCLUSIONS: The data obtained in the present study confirm that ΔUSEx3 is a strong and robust muscle-specific promoter in the context of HDAd (cell culture and in vivo) and LV (cell culture). However, it was less efficient in vivo in the context of LV.