ADENOVIRUS MUTANTS WITH DELETED PROTEASE GENE, COMPLEMENTING CELL LINES AND CORRESPONDING VECTORS FOR GENE TRANSFER

摘要

An adenovirus vector/packaging cell line system is disclosed, in which the vector replication is blocked by deletion of a single gene, which deletion does not interfere with any other viral functions. The deleted gene is the gene of the adenovirus protease. The protease is expressed in a complementing (packaging) cell line through a regulatable expression cassette which induces no toxic effects in the cells, thus making the generation and propagation of the vector easier and more efficient. As the deleted gene is highly specific of adenovirus, no complementation of the gene in transduced cells is expected, which increases the safety of the vectors for gene transfer purposes. Also disclosed is a system of generating recombinant adenovirus vectors by positive selection of recombinants deleted for the endogenous protease, gene which gene is cloned in another region of the adenoviral genome.