Generation of Retroviral Packaging and Producer Cell Lines for Large-Scale Vector Production and Clinical Application: Improved Safety and High Titer

For many applications, human clinical therapies using retroviral vectors still require many technological improvements in key areas of vector design and production. These improvements include higher unprocessed manufacturing titers, complement-resistant vectors, and minimized potential to generate replication-competent retrovirus (RCR). To address these issues, we have developed a panel of human packaging cell lines (PCLs) with reduced homology between retroviral vector and packaging components. These reduced-homology PCLs allowed for the use of a novel high multiplicity of transduction ("high m.o.t.") method to introduce multiple copies of provector within vector-producing cell lines (VPCLs), resulting in high-titer vector without the generation of RCR. In a distinct approach to increase vector yields, we integrated manufacturing parameters into screening strategies and clone selection for large-scale vector production. Collectively, these improvements have resulted in the development of diverse VPCLs with unprocessed titers exceeding 2 × 10 7 CFU/ml. Using this technology, human Factor VIII VPCLs yielding titers as high as 2 × 10 8 CFU/ml unprocessed supernatant were generated. These cell lines produce complement-resistant vector particles (N. J. DePolo et al., J. Virol. 73: 6708–6714, 1999) and provide the basis for an ongoing Factor VIII gene therapy clinical trial.