Engraftment of NOD/SCID mice with human CD34(+) cells transduced by concentrated oncoretroviral vector particles pseudotyped with the feline endogenous retrovirus (RD114) envelope protein

Oncoretrovirus vectors pseudotyped with the feline endogenous retrovirus (RD114) envelope protein produced by the FLYRD18 packaging cell line have previously been shown to transduce human hematopoietic progenitor cells with a greater efficiency than similar amphotropic envelope-pseudotyped vectors. In this report, we describe the production and efficient concentration of RD114-pseudotyped murine leukemia virus (MLV)-based vectors. Following a single round of centrifugation, vector supernatants were concentrated approximately 200-fold with a 50 to 70% yield. Concentrated vector stocks transduced prestimulated human CD34(+) (hCD34(+)) cells with approximately 69% efficiency (n = 7, standard deviation = 4.4%) using a single addition of vector at a low multiplicity of infection (MOI = 5). Introduction of transduced hCD34(+) cells into irradiated NOD/SCID recipients resulted in multilineage engraftment with long-term transgene expression. These data demonstrate that RD114-pseudotyped MLV-based vectors can be efficiently concentrated to high titers and that hCD34(+) cells transduced with concentrated vector stocks retain in vivo repopulating potential. These results highlight the potential of RD114-pseudotyped oncoretrovirus vectors for future clinical implementation in hematopoietic stem cell gene transfer.