A replication competent lentivirus (RCL) assay for equine infectious anaemia virus (EIAV)-based lentiviral vectors.

Lentiviral vectors are being developed to satisfy a wide range of currently unmet medical needs. Vectors destined for clinical evaluation have been rendered multiply defective by deletion of all viral coding sequences and nonessential cis-acting sequences from the transfer genome. The viral envelope and accessory proteins are excluded from the production system. The vectors are produced from separate expression plasmids that are designed to minimize the potential for homologous recombination. These features ensure that the regeneration of the starting virus is impossible. It is a regulatory requirement to confirm the absence of any replication competent virus, so we describe here the development and validation of a replication competent lentivirus (RCL) assay for equine infectious anaemia virus (EIAV)-based vectors. The assay is based on the guidelines developed for testing retroviral vectors, and uses the F-PERT (fluorescent-product enhanced reverse transcriptase) assay to test for the presence of a transmissible reverse transcriptase. We have empirically modelled the replication kinetics of an EIAV-like entity in human cells and devised an amplification protocol by comparison with a replication competent MLV. The RCL assay has been validated at the 20 litre manufacturing scale, during which no RCL was detected. The assay is theoretically applicable to any lentiviral vector and pseudotype combination.

Rabies virus glycoprotein pseudotyping of lentiviral vectors enables retrograde axonal transport and access to the nervous system after peripheral delivery.

In this report it is demonstrated for the first time that rabies-G envelope of the rabies virus is sufficient to confer retrograde axonal transport to a heterologous virus/vector. After delivery of rabies-G pseudotyped equine infectious anaemia virus (EIAV) based vectors encoding a marker gene to the rat striatum, neurons in regions distal from but projecting to the injection site, such as the dopaminergic neurons of the substantia nigra pars compacta, become transduced. This retrograde transport to appropriate distal neurons was also demonstrated after delivery to substantia nigra, hippocampus and spinal cord and did not occur when vesicular stomatitis virus glycoprotein (VSV-G) pseudotyped vectors were delivered to these sites. In addition, peripheral administration of rabies-G pseudotyped vectors to the rat gastrocnemius muscle leads to gene transfer in motoneurons of lumbar spinal cord. In contrast the same vector pseudotyped with VSV-G transduced muscle cells surrounding the injection site, but did not result in expression in any cells in the spinal cord. Long-term expression was observed after gene transfer in the nervous system and a minimal immune response which, together with the possibility of non-invasive administration, greatly extends the utility of lentiviral vectors for gene therapy of human neurological disease.

Use of intron-disrupted polyadenylation sites to enhance expression and safety of retroviral vectors.

Normal mRNA polyadenylation signals are composed of an AAUAAA motif and G/U box spaced 20 to 30 bp apart. If this spacing is increased further, then polyadenylation is disrupted. Previously it has been demonstrated that insertion of an intron will similarly disrupt this signal even though such introns are removed during a nuclear splicing reaction (X. Liu and J. Mertz, Nucleic Acids Res. 21:5256-5263, 1993). This observation has led to the suggestion that polyadenylation site selection is undertaken prior to intron excision. We now present results that both support and extend these observations and in doing so create a novel class of retroviral expression vector with improved qualities. We found that when an intron-disrupted polyadenylation signal is inserted within a retroviral expression vector, such a signal, although reformed in the producer cell, remains benign until transduction, where it is then preferentially used. Thus, we demonstrate that upon transduction these vectors now produce a majority of shortened subgenomic species and as a consequence have a reduced tendency for subsequent mobilization from transduced cells. In addition, we demonstrate that the use of this internal signal leads to enhanced expression from such vectors and that this is achieved without any loss in titer. Therefore, split polyadenylation signals confer enhanced performance and improved safety upon retroviral expression vectors into which they are inserted. Such split signals may prove useful for the future optimization of retroviral vectors in gene therapy.

Growth factor enhanced retroviral gene transfer to the adult central nervous system.

The use of viral vectors for gene delivery into mammalian cells provides a new approach in the treatment of many human diseases. The first viral vector approved for human clinical trials was murine leukemia virus (MLV), which remains the most commonly used vector in clinical trials to date. However, the application of MLV vectors is limited since MLV requires cells to be actively dividing in order for transduction and therefore gene delivery to occur. This limitation precludes the use of MLV for delivering genes to the adult CNS, where very little cell division is occurring. However, we speculated that this inherent limitation of ML V may be overcome by utilizing the known mitogenic effect of growth factors on cells of the CNS. Specifically, an in vivo application of growth factor to the adult brain, if able to induce cell division, could enhance MLV-based gene transfer to the adult brain. We now show that an exogenous application of basic fibroblast growth factor induces cell division in vivo. Under these conditions, where cells of the adult brain are stimulated to divide, MLV-based gene transfer is significantly enhanced. This novel approach precludes any vector modifications and provides a simple and effective way of delivering genes to cells of the adult brain utilizing MLV-based retroviral vectors.

Stable gene transfer to the nervous system using a non-primate lentiviral vector.

We have constructed a non-primate lentiviral vector system based on the equine infectious anaemia virus (EIAV). This system is able to transduce both dividing and non-dividing cells, including primary cultured hippocampal neurons and neurons and glia in the adult rat central nervous system (CNS), at efficiencies comparable with HIV-based vectors. We demonstrate that the only EIAV proteins required for this activity are gag/pol and that the only accessory protein required for vector production is rev. In addition, we show that the pol encoded dUTPase activity that is found in all non-primate lentiviruses is not required. The vectors can be pseudotyped with a range of envelopes including rabies G and MLV 4070A and can be concentrated to high titres. The ability of EIAV to infect mitotically inactive cells makes this vector an attractive alternative to the immunodeficiency viruses for gene therapy.

Similar interactions of the poliovirus and rhinovirus 3D polymerases with the 3' untranslated region of rhinovirus 14.

We showed previously that a human rhinovirus 14 (HRV14) 3' untranslated region (3' UTR) on a poliovirus genome was able to replicate with nearly wild-type kinetics (J. B. Rohll, D. H. Moon, D. J. Evans, and J. W. Almond, J. Virol 69:7835-7844, 1995). This enabled the HRV14 single 3' UTR stem-loop structure to be studied in combination with a sensitive reporter system, poliovirus FLC/REP, in which the capsid coding region is replaced by an in-frame chloramphemicol acetyltransferase (CAT) gene. Using such a construct, we identified a mutant (designated mut4), in which the structure and stability of the stem were predicted to be maintained, that replicated very poorly as determined by its level of CAT activity. The effect of this mutant 3' UTR on replication has been further investigated by transferring it onto the full-length cDNAs of both poliovirus type 3 (PV3) and HRV14. Virus was recovered with a parental plaque phenotype at a low frequency, indicating the acquisition of compensating changes, which sequence analysis revealed were, in both poliovirus- and rhinovirus-derived viruses, located in the active-site cleft of 3D polymerase and involved the substitution of Asn18 for Tyr. These results provide further evidence of a specific interaction between the 3' UTR of picornaviruses and the viral polymerase and also indicate similar interactions of the 3' UTR of rhinovirus with both poliovirus and rhinovirus polymerases.

Binding of a cellular factor to the 3' untranslated region of the RNA genomes of entero- and rhinoviruses plays a role in virus replication.

The presence of cellular factors that bind to the 3' untranslated region (UTR) of picornaviruses was investigated by electrophoretic mobility shift assays (EMSAs). A cellular factor(s) that binds specifically the 3' UTR of polio-, coxsackie- and rhinoviruses was detected. Furthermore, this factor(s) is distinct from those which bind to the 5' terminal 88 nt (the 'cloverleaf') of poliovirus. Mutations within the 3' UTR which decrease the affinity of the RNA for the cellular factor in EMSAs decrease RNA replication and virus viability. Revertants of these mutants display changes which are predicted to stabilize the RNA secondary structure of the 3' UTR. These results indicate that binding of a cellular factor to the UTR plays a role in virus replication and that RNA secondary structure is important for this function.

The 3' untranslated region of picornavirus RNA: features required for efficient genome replication.

The role of the 3' untranslated region (3'UTR) in the replication of enteroviruses has been studied with a series of mutants derived from either poliovirus type 3 (PV3) or a PV3 replicon containing the reporter gene chloramphenicol acetyltransferase. Replication was observed when the PV3 3'UTR was replaced with that of either coxsackie B4 virus, human rhinovirus 14 (HRV14), bovine enterovirus, or hepatitis A virus, despite the lack of sequence and secondary structure homology of the 3'UTRs of these viruses. The levels of replication observed for recombinants containing the 3'UTRs of hepatitis A virus and bovine enterovirus were lower than those for PV3 and the other recombinants. Extensive site-directed mutagenesis of the single stem-loop structure formed by the HRV14 3'UTR indicated the importance of (i) the loop sequence, (ii) the stability of the stem, and (iii) the location of the stem immediately upstream of the poly(A) tail. The role of a 4-bp motif at the base of the HRV14 stem, highly conserved among rhinoviruses, was examined by site-directed mutagenesis of individual base pairs. This analysis did not pinpoint a particular base pair as crucial for function. The requirement for immediate adjacent positioning of the open reading frame and the 3'UTR was examined by insertion of a 1.1-kb heterologous sequence. A replicon containing this insert replicated to about 30% of the level observed for the wild type. However, the corresponding virus consistently deleted most of the inserted fragment, suggesting that its presence was incompatible with a full replication cycle.

The 5'-untranslated regions of picornavirus RNAs contain independent functional domains essential for RNA replication and translation.

The role of the 5'-untranslated region (5'UTR) in the replication of enteroviruses has been studied by using a series of poliovirus type 3 (PV3) replicons containing the chloramphenicol acetyltransferase reporter gene in which the 5'UTR was replaced by the 5'UTR of either coxsackievirus B4 or human rhinovirus 14 or composite 5'UTRs derived from sequences of PV3, human rhinovirus 14, coxsackievirus B4, or encephalomyocarditis virus. The results indicate that efficient replication of an enterovirus genome requires a compatible interaction between the 5'-terminal cloverleaf structure and the coding and/or 3'-noncoding regions of the genome. A crucial determinant of this interaction is the stem-loop formed by nucleotides 46 to 81 (stem-loop d). The independence of the cloverleaf structure formed by the 5'-terminal 88 nucleotides and the ribosome landing pad or internal ribosome entry site (IRES) was investigated by constructing a 5'UTR composed of the PV3 cloverleaf and the IRES from encephalomyocarditis virus. Chloramphenicol acetyltransferase gene-containing replicons and viruses containing this recombinant 5'UTR showed levels of replication similar to those of the corresponding genomes containing the complete PV3 5'UTR, indicating that the cloverleaf and the IRES may be regarded as functionally independent and nonoverlapping elements.

Expression of an animal virus antigenic site on the surface of a plant virus particle.

To investigate if cowpea mosaic virus (CPMV) particles can be used to express foreign protein sequences, oligonucleotides encoding an epitope derived from VP1 of foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) were cloned into the region of the CPMV genome encoding the small (S) coat protein. The chimeras were designed so that the foreign sequence was expressed either as an insertion or as a replacement for part of the wild-type sequence. While RNA from both chimeras was able to replicate in cowpea protoplasts only the construct containing the FMDV sequence as an insertion was able to direct capsid formation and infect whole cowpea plants. The modified S protein produced in plants infected with the insertion derivative reacted with FMDV-specific antiserum. These results show that CPMV can be used as an antigen presentation system and raises the possibility of producing vaccines in plants using a RNA virus-based vector.

3'-terminal nucleotide sequences important for the accumulation of cowpea mosaic virus M-RNA.

The location of nucleotide sequences important in determining the extent of cowpea mosaic virus M-RNA accumulation in cowpea protoplasts has been analyzed by deletion mutagenesis of full-length cDNA clones from which infectious transcripts can be produced in vitro. The results suggest that cis-acting sequences which direct replication of M-RNA by B-RNA-encoded products are located within the 5'-terminal 524 nucleotides and the 3'-terminal 151 nucleotides. RNA secondary structure predictions for the 3'-terminal 151 nucleotides of both genomic RNAs (Eggen et al. (1989) Virology 173, 456-464) indicate that the terminal nucleotides form a stable secondary structure composed of a Y-shaped stem-loop and a simple A-U-rich stem-loop. The latter structure has been implicated in B-RNA replication. We have examined the role of the Y-shaped structure in M-RNA accumulation by site-directed mutagenesis of putative base-pairing combinations in the two minor stems. The results suggest that efficient replication is dependent on the formation of both of these minor stem structures.