Funding for this project was provided by the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine.

1. Lentivirus production, harvest, and freezing
<ol>
	<li>Consult your institutional safety official before beginning this protocol, and follow their recommended safety guidelines.</li>
	<li>Day 1. Start with healthy, rapidly growing 293T cells to produce virus. Plate the cells at 5 x 106 
	cells per 10 cm plate. Use antibiotic-free 293T medium (high-glucose DMEM with 10% FBS and 4 mM L-glutamine) for virus production.</li>
	<li>Day 2. In the late afternoon, transfect 293T cells as follows (numbers given are for one 10 cm plate). 
	Let all reagents warm up to room temperature. Pipette 375 μl OptiMEM into a microcentrifuge tube, then add 25 μl 
	Fugene HD. Do not allow undiluted Fugene to contact the surface of the tube.</li>
	<li>In a microcentrifuge tube, mix:
		<ul>
			<li>5 μg transfer plasmid (Slc7a1, target vector, or fluorescent control vector)</li>
			<li>3.75 μg packaging plasmid (pCMV-dR8.91 or psPax2)</li>
			<li>1.25 μg envelope plasmid (pMD2.G for pantropic, pHCMV-EcoEnv for ecotropic)</li>
			<li>serum-free OptiMEM to 100 μl</li>
		</ul>
	</li>
	<li>Combine the two tubes and incubate the mixture 20-30 minutes at room temperature.</li>
	<li>Change the medium on the 293T cells to 10 ml fresh antibiotic-free 293T medium. Add the Fugene/plasmid mix 
	drop-wise to the plate and incubate overnight at 37°C, 5% CO2.</li>
	<li>Day 3. Change medium on the 293T cells to 10 ml fresh antibiotic-free 293T medium. Be gentle, 
	because 293T cells adhere only loosely and can slough off by media pipetted too forcefully onto the 
	monolayer. Incubate for two days in a humidified incubator for virus production.</li>
	<li>Day 5. Harvest virus and filter with a 0.45 mm low protein binding filter. Use immediately or dispense 
	into single-use aliquots and freeze at -80°C. Frozen pantropic and ecotropic virus should be re-titered after it has 
	been stored for six months and one month, respectively.</li>
	<li>Titer the virus as follows, using cells that are relatively amenable to transduction. Transduce cells with fluorescent control virus overnight using serial dilutions (e.g. 1:10, 1:100, 1:1000) in fresh medium with 6 μg/ml PB. Change to fresh medium the next day. Allow the cells two days after transduction to begin expressing the fluorescent protein, then determine the fraction of transduced cells by FACS. Calculate the titer in transforming units (TU) per ml, based on dilutions that yield &lt; 15% transduction to minimize multiple transduction events. 
	<img src="/files/ftp_upload/2822/2822eq1.jpg" alt="Titer calculation formula: Titer (TU/ml) = (% infected × no. cells × dilution factor) / virus volume." data-altupdatedat="1747911167000" data-alt="Equation 1">
	</li>
</ol>
2. Transduction of human target cells with murine retrovirus receptor Slc7a1
<ol>
	<li>Select a multiplicity of infection (MOI) = 2 to ensure that most cells will be transduced. For target cells that are resistant to transduction such as HDFs, a higher MOI will be required; we dilute the viral supernatant only 1:2 to achieve transduction of a majority of the cells.</li>
	<li>Transduce target cells overnight with viral supernatant diluted in fresh culture medium with 6 μg/ml PB, which increases transduction by enhancing electrostatic interaction between the virus and target cell.1 Ideally one should use a minimal volume of virus, such as 1 ml for a 35 mm plate, because diffusion is a limiting factor in transduction efficiency. </li>
	<li>Culture cells for at least 48 hours after removing virus before transducing them with ecotropic virus, in order to ensure sufficient expression of the Slc7a1 receptor.</li>
	<li>(Optional) It is possible to use blasticidin to select for stably transduced cells expressing Slc7a1, if desired. A blasticidin kill curve should be generated in advance to determine the lowest effective concentration, generally between 2 – 10 μg/ml, that kills all untransduced target cells in 7 days. About 2 days after removing the Slc7a1 virus, switch the transduced cells to medium containing blasticidin. Culture the cells in blasticidin-containing medium for 7 days, at which point all remaining cells will stably express the retrovirus receptor at which point they can be transduced with ecotropic virus as well as banked for future use as a stable Slc7a1-expressing line.</li>
</ol>
3. Polymer complex titration to determine toxicity
<ol>
	<li>Day 1. Plate cells at 5000 cells/well in a 96-well plate, allowing at least triplicate wells for each experimental group. Include untransduced cells in complete medium to provide a baseline value for healthy cells, as well as samples consisting of cells in serum-free medium to induce growth arrest as a control. In parallel, plate cells in an appropriate format (such as a 24-well plate) for microscopic or FACS-based analysis of transduction efficiency in each experimental condition.</li>
	<li>Day 2. Transduce cells in plates set up for both the MTT and FACS analyses with virus encoding GFP, at an MOI of 0.5 to transduce ~40% of target cells. Test varied concentrations of CS/PB (e.g. 50, 100, 200, 400, 600, and 800 mg/ml of each component), as well as 6 μg/ml PB, to determine optimal amounts. Generate polymer complexes as described in Part 4, below.</li>
	<li>Day 3. Remove virus-containing medium and replace with fresh medium. Return the plates to a humidified incubator.</li>
	<li>Day 5. Analyze FACS plate to determine the transduction efficiency with each polymer concentration. </li>
	<li>Day 6. Remove the medium from all wells of the MTT plate and replace with 100 μl MTT solution (1 mg/ml MTT in complete medium). Culture for three hours in a humidified incubator to allow MTT to be reduced in the mitochondria of metabolically active cells.</li>
	<li>Remove MTT solution and replace with 200 ml MTT solvent (0.1 N HCl, 0.1% Igepal CA-630 in isopropanol). </li>
	<li>Incubate for two hours at room temperature or until all of the purple MTT formazan precipitate is dissolved. Read the absorbance on a microplate reader at 570 nm, subtracting the background reading at 690 nm. </li>
	<li>Select the optimal polymer concentration that produces maximum enhancement of transduction, as determined by FACS, with minimal effect on metabolic activity, as determined by MTT. For HDFs, we selected 100 μg/ml CS/PB based on the data shown in the Representative Results, below.</li>
</ol>
4. Ecotropic transduction with polymer complexation
<ol>
	<li>Prepare sterile-filtered stock solutions of PB and chondroitin sulfate at 20 mg/ml in water. Aliquot and store at -20°C.</li>
	<li>Pipette viral supernatant into a microcentrifuge tube and dilute to the desired final concentration (e.g. MOI of 2) with fresh culture medium. Add equal volumes of PB and chondroitin sulfate (concentrations determined in step 3 above) in succession, flicking the tube to mix after each addition. The viral mixture will immediately become cloudy as precipitates form. Incubate the viral mixture at room temperature for 5 minutes to allow complex formation.</li>
	<li>Remove media from the receptor-expressing target cells, replace with the viral mix, and incubate overnight at 37°C, 5% CO2. After removing the viral mix, wash the surface of the cells twice with PBS to aid in removing viral complexes. Complete removal is not necessary; we have observed no adverse effects on cell health from residual polymer complexes.</li>
</ol>
5. Verifying specificity of ecotropic transduction
<ol>
	<li>When producing ecotropic virus for the first time, it is prudent from a safety perspective to verify that the virus is unable to transduce unmodified human cells. Transduce human cells with ecotropic lentivirus at relatively high concentration (only a 1 to 2-fold dilution of viral supernatant in fresh medium) overnight with 6 μg/ml PB or optimized CS/PB concentration. </li>
	<li>Remove virus-containing medium and replace with fresh medium. After incubating cells for 2 days, validate transgene expression by FACS using fluorescent vectors and/or by RT-PCR with transgene-specific primers.</li>
</ol>
6. Representative results:
Fig. 1A shows the lentivirus production process, and Fig. 1B shows transduction of human cells with ecotropic lentivirus, including pre-transduction with murine retrovirus receptor Slc7a1. For titering virus, we use a human rhabdomyosarcoma cell line stably transduced with Slc7a1 (Slc-hRMS). When using fluorescent control vectors to monitor transduction efficiency, we routinely achieve &gt; 90% transduction efficiency of Slc-hRMS with ecotropic virus, as shown in Fig. 2A and 2B. Transduction rates of HDFs are generally lower because the cells have not been blasticidin-selected for receptor expression (Fig. 2C). Titers of ecotropic lentivirus are generally 10-20% of VSV-pseudotyped virus when measured on Slc-hRMS (Fig. 2D).
One freeze-thaw cycle reduces titer of ecotropic virus by 16 - 3%, equal to titer loss during a single freeze-thaw cycle of VSV-pseudotyped virus (p &gt; 0.05). Contrary to previous reports,2 we observe no positive effect on virus titer from flash freezing in dry ice. Rather, we achieve higher post-thaw titers of either pseudotype by simply placing tubes of virus into a -80°C freezer (data not shown). 
The MTT viability assay allows sensitive detection of growth arrest in target cells. Transduction with virus plus concentrations of CS/PB up to 800 μg/ml has no effect on HDF metabolism (Fig. 3A). Exposure to CS/PB without virus also has no toxic effect on cells (data not shown). FACS analysis of HDFs transduced with virus plus various concentrations of CS/PB shows enhancement of transduction compared to PB alone (Fig. 3B). The maximum enhancement occurs at 100 μg/ml CS/PB (Fig. 3C), several-fold lower than previously reported values.3 Thus, it is important to optimize conditions for any given target cell type.
Complexation with CS/PB enhances the observed titer roughly 3-fold in Slc-hRMS (Fig. 4A, p &lt; 0.01). In practice, this yields a greater effect on transduction efficiency at low virus concentrations than at higher concentrations (Fig. 4B), which is most likely due to multiply transduced cells and receptor saturation at higher virus concentrations.
Transduction with ecotropic virus is specific for cells expressing murine retrovirus receptor. When transducing unmodified human cells with ecotropic virus, we have not observed fluorescence greater than the untransduced background whether using PB or CS/PB, as shown in Fig. 5A. Microscopically, HDFs show no transduction in the absence of receptor (Fig. 5B) while pre-transduction with receptor results in fluorescent cells (Fig. 5C).
<img src="/files/ftp_upload/2822/2822fig1.jpg" alt="Lentivirus production diagram, gene editing method in 293T cells and transduction in human cells." data-altupdatedat="1747911167000" data-alt="Figure 1"> 
Figure 1. Schematic view of (A) the virus production process and (B) transduction of human cells with murine retrovirus receptor followed by ecotropic lentivirus.
<img src="/files/ftp_upload/2822/2822fig2.jpg" alt="Flow cytometry analysis of GFP expression; includes bar graph and fluorescent cell microscopy." data-altupdatedat="1747911167000" data-alt="Figure 2"> 
Figure 2. High-efficiency transduction of human cells with ecotropic lentivirus encoding GFP. Cells were pre-transduced with murine retrovirus receptor Slc7a1. (A) Human rhabdomyosarcoma cell line blasticidin-selected for Slc7a1 (Slc-hRMS), transduced (blue) or untransduced (pink) with GFP. (B) Fluorescent micrograph of ecotropic-transduced Slc-hRMS (4X). (C) HDFs transduced (blue) and untransduced (pink) with ecotropic GFP lentivirus; cells were transduced with Slc7a1 two days prior to ecotropic transduction. (D) Titer of VSV-G pseudotyped and ecotropic lentivirus, measured on Slc-hRMS.
<img src="/files/ftp_upload/2822/2822fig3.jpg" alt="Polymer effect on viral entry; absorbance bar graph, GFP intensity histogram, GFP% vs concentration chart." data-altupdatedat="1747911167000" data-alt="Figure 3"> 
Figure 3. Optimizing chondroitin sulfate/polybrene (CS/PB) concentrations in human dermal fibroblasts. (A) Viability of HDFs measured by MTT assay after transduction in the presence of PB only or with varied concentrations of CS/PB. (B) Enhancement of transduction efficiency in HDFs by different concentrations of CS/PB, measured by FACS. (C) Quantification of transduction enhancement, showing that maximum transduction occurs at 100 μg/ml CS/PB.
<img src="/files/ftp_upload/2822/2822fig4.jpg" alt="Bar and scatter charts showing viral titer, transduction efficiency with polybrene." data-altupdatedat="1747911167000" data-alt="Figure 4"> 
Figure 4. Effect of 400 μg/ml CS/PB on transduction of Slc-hRMS with ecotropic lentivirus. (A) Titer enhancement, and (B) fold change in transduction rate compared to 6 μg/ml polybrene alone.
<img src="/files/ftp_upload/2822/2822fig5.jpg" alt="Flow cytometry graph and fluorescence microscopy images; GFP expression analysis in cells." data-altupdatedat="1747911167000" data-alt="Figure 5"> 
Figure 5. Lack of ecotropic transduction of HDFs in the absence of murine retrovirus receptor Slc7a1. (A) FACS plot of BJ human fibroblasts, untransduced (pink) or transduced (blue) with ecotropic GFP lentivirus in both cases in the absence of receptor Slc7a1. BJ human fibroblasts transduced with ecotropic GFP lentivirus, without (B) and with (C) pre-transduction with receptor Slc7a1 (4X).

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	<li>Davis, H. E., Rosinski, M., Morgan, J. R., Yarmush, M. L. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Charged+polymers+modulate+retrovirus+transduction+via+membrane+charge+neutralization+and+virus+aggregation.">Charged polymers modulate retrovirus transduction via membrane charge neutralization and virus aggregation.</a> Biophys J. 86, 1234-1242 (2004).</li><li>Marino, M. P., Luce, M. J., Reiser, J. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Small-+to+large-scale+production+of+lentivirus+vectors.">Small- to large-scale production of lentivirus vectors.</a> Methods Mol Biol. 229, 43-55 (2003).</li><li>Landazuri, N., LeDoux, J. 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No conflicts of interest declared.

Recombinant ecotropic gammaretrovirus based on Moloney murine leukemia virus (MLV) and its receptor mSlc7a1 are well studied and widely available, having been used for over 20 years to deliver transgenes to murine cells. Ecotropic gammaretrovirus has also been used more recently to deliver oncogenes to human cells; in the context of cellular reprogramming, the use of mSlc7a1 to avoid generation of amphotropic virus harboring human oncogenes is well established.4,5 However, lentivirus provides significant advantages over gammaretrovirus in transducing refractory cell populations,6 including primary cells that are often desirable targets for reprogramming, because the lentiviral pre-integration complex allows transduction of non-dividing cells.7 
Lentiviruses have been produced with dozens of different pseudotypes, including MLV, in an effort to alter virus tropism, toxicity, and other properties.8 MLV-pseudotyped ecotropic lentivirus has been used to transduce mouse cells,9 but has seldom been used on human cells.10 We therefore propose the use of MLV-pseudotyped ecotropic lentivirus as a safe, cost effective, and highly efficient vehicle to deliver known or suspected oncogenes, including cellular reprogramming factors, to human cells. 
It is critical to note that this protocol does not entirely eliminate the need to produce and use pantropic lentivirus; rather, this protocol separates the oncogene(s) from the pantropic virus, insulating researchers from potential self-inoculation with cancer-related viruses. The protein mSlc7a1 and its human homologue hSlc7a1 are ubiquitously expressed amino acid transporters with no known tumorigenicity or ability to confer a selective growth advantage on recipient cells,11 making mSlc7a1 of relatively low risk for incorporation into amphotropic virus. This added step may be particularly useful in laboratories lacking dedicated virus or tissue culture facilities of the required biosafety level. 
In some situations it may be possible to completely eliminate the use of pantropic virus by transfecting the Slc7a1 plasmid directly into target cells; however, many cells that would be useful targets of this technique are also refractory to transfection. As an alternative, the ability to isolate Slc7a1-transduced cells by blasticidin selection means that VSV-G pseudotyped lentivirus can be used once to generate a stock of receptor-expressing cells, after which ecotropic virus can be used routinely to transduce these cells for many experiments. Researchers should always follow their institutional safety guidelines for working with any lentivirus, regardless of its tropism.
Titers of ecotropic virus achieved with this protocol are moderately lower than VSV-pseudotyped virus, generally 10-20% of the pantropic virus titer, in agreement with previous studies.9 These titers were measured in human cells stably transduced with Slc7a1, so the lower observed titer for ecotropic virus may be partly due to varied expression of the receptor gene in target cells. Nonetheless, the viral titers attained in our protocol are more than sufficient for most applications and lead to transduction of the majority of cells, in some cases &gt; 90% of cells.
Centrifugation-based techniques are commonly used to concentrate viral particles. However, 
centrifugation requires several hours, generates infectious aerosols, and can result in significant loss of viral 
particles.12 As an alternative, complexation with CS/PB can be used to enhance transduction without altering viral 
tropism.3 This method is rapid (5 minutes) and inexpensive ($0.03 per 10 ml virus), while roughly tripling the observed 
titer. No special equipment or proprietary reagents are required, and we observed minimal acute toxicity after exposure 
of HDFs to CS/PB, in agreement with previous work in other cell lines.13 One potential drawback of this protocol is that 
some microscopically visible polymer complexes adhere to the cells for several days in culture. We cannot rule out the 
possibility that these complexes, while not overtly toxic to the cells, may have more subtle effects on cellular 
processes. 
Here we have described a methodology for safely and efficiently transducing human cells with oncogenic factors. This approach should be of great utility to researchers studying oncogenes and stem cell biology including iPS cells.

<table><tbody><tr><td>pLenti6/UbC/mSlc7a1</td><td>Addgene</td><td>17224</td><td>Murine MLV receptor</td></tr><tr><td>pMD2.G</td><td>Addgene</td><td>12259</td><td>VSV-G envelope</td></tr><tr><td>pCMV-dR8.91</td><td>Addgene</td><td></td><td>D. Trono lab&lt;sup&gt;14&lt;/sup&gt;
&lt;br/&gt;Packaging plasmid (equivalent plasmid psPax2 is available from Addgene, Cat. Number 12260)</td></tr><tr><td>pHCMV-Ec&amp;#8211;nv</td><td>Addgene</td><td>15802</td><td>Ecotropic envelope</td></tr><tr><td>FUGW</td><td>Addgene</td><td>14883</td><td>GFP control plasmid</td></tr><tr><td>OptiMEM</td><td>Invitrogen</td><td>31985</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Fugene HD</td><td>Roche Group</td><td>04 709 705 001</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Hexadimethrine bromide (Polybrene)</td><td>Sigma-Aldrich</td><td>H9268</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Chondroitin sulfate sodium salt from shark cartilage</td><td>Sigma-Aldrich</td><td>C4384</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Blasticidin S</td><td>Fisher Scientific</td><td>BP 2647100</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Methylthiazolyldiphenyl-tetrazolium bromide (MTT)</td><td>Sigma-Aldrich</td><td>M2128</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Igepal CA-630</td><td>Sigma-Aldrich</td><td>I3021</td><td></td></tr></tbody></table>

transduction of human cells with polymer-complexed ecotropic lentivirus for enhanced biosafety

Stem and tumor cell biology studies often require viral transduction of human cells with known or suspected oncogenes, raising major safety issues for laboratory personnel. Pantropic lentiviruses, such as the commonly used VSV-G pseudotype, are a valuable tool for studying gene function because they can transduce many cell types, including non-dividing cells. However, researchers may wish to avoid production and centrifugation of pantropic viruses encoding oncogenes due to higher biosafety level handling requirements and safety issues. Several potent oncogenes, including c-Myc and SV40 large T antigen, are known to enhance production of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC). All other known iPSC-inducing genetic changes (OCT4, SOX2, KLF4, NANOG, LIN28, and p53 loss of function) also have links to cancer, making them of relatively high safety concern as well. 
While these cancer-related viruses are useful in studying cellular reprogramming and pluripotency, they must be used safely. To address these biosafety issues, we demonstrate a method for transduction of human cells with ecotropic lentivirus, with additional emphasis on reduced cost and convenient handling. We have produced ecotropic lentivirus with sufficiently high titer to transduce greater than 90% of receptor-expressing human cells exposed to the virus, validating the efficacy of this approach. 
Lentivirus is often concentrated by ultracentrifugation; however, this process takes several hours and can produce aerosols infectious to human biomedical researchers. As an alternative, viral particles can be more safely sedimented onto cells by complexation with chondroitin sulfate and polybrene (CS/PB). This technique increases the functional viral titer up to 3-fold in cells stably expressing murine retrovirus receptor, with negligible added time and cost. Transduction of human dermal fibroblasts (HDFs) is maximally enhanced using CS/PB concentrations approximately 4-fold lower than the optimal value previously reported for cancer cell lines, suggesting that polymer concentration should be titrated for the target cell type of interest. We therefore describe the use of methylthiazolyldiphenyl-tetrazolium bromide (MTT) to assay for polymer toxicity in a new cell type. We observe equivalent viability of HDFs after viral transduction using either polymer complexation or the standard dose of polybrene (PB, 6 &mu;g/ml), indicating minimal acute toxicity.
In this protocol, we describe the use of ecotropic lentivirus for overexpression of oncogenes in human cells, reducing biosafety risks and increasing the transduction rate. We also demonstrate the use of polymer complexation to enhance transduction while avoiding aerosol-forming centrifugation of viral particles.

Watch this Scientific Journal Video about Transduction of Human Cells with Polymer-complexed Ecotropic Lentivirus for Enhanced Biosafety at JoVE.com

Transduction of Human Cells with Polymer-complexed Ecotropic Lentivirus for Enhanced Biosafety

Lentiviruses are a valuable research tool for exploring gene function; however, researchers may wish to avoid production of pantropic lentivirus encoding known or suspected oncogenes. As an alternative, we present a safer protocol for use of ecotropic lentivirus on human cells modified to express the ecotropic receptor mSlc7a1.

Stem and tumor cell biology studies often require viral transduction of human cells with known or suspected oncogenes, raising major safety issues for ...

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15.1K Views.  University of California, Davis. Lentivirussen zijn een waardevol onderzoeksinstrument voor het verkennen van genfunctie, maar onderzoekers kunnen wensen om de productie van pantropic bekende lentivirus codering of vermoede oncogenen te vermijden. Als alternatief, presenteren we een veiliger protocol voor het gebruik van ecotropic lentivirus op menselijke cellen aangepast aan de ecotropic receptor mSlc7a1 uit te drukken.

Video: Transduction of Human Cells with Polymer-complexed Ecotropic Lentivirus for Enhanced Biosafety

Stable and Efficient Genetic Modification of Cells in the Adult Mouse V-SVZ for the Analysis of Neural Stem Cell Autonomous and Non-autonomous Effects

Relatively quiescent somatic stem cells support life-long cell renewal in most adult tissues. Neural stem cells in the adult mammalian brain are restricted to two specific neurogenic niches: the subgranular zone of the dentate gyrus in the hippocampus and the ventricular-subventricular zone (V-SVZ; also called subependymal zone or SEZ) in the walls of the lateral ventricles. The development of in vivo gene transfer strategies for adult stem cell populations (i.e. those of the mammalian brain) resulting in long-term expression of desired transgenes in the stem cells and their derived progeny is a crucial tool in current biomedical and biotechnological research. Here, a direct in vivo method is presented for the stable genetic modification of adult mouse V-SVZ cells that takes advantage of the cell cycle-independent infection by LVs and the highly specialized cytoarchitecture of the V-SVZ niche. Specifically, the current protocol involves the injection of empty LVs (control) or LVs encoding specific transgene expression cassettes into either the V-SVZ itself, for the in vivo targeting of all types of cells in the niche, or into the lateral ventricle lumen, for the targeting of ependymal cells only. Expression cassettes are then integrated into the genome of the transduced cells and fluorescent proteins, also encoded by the LVs, allow the detection of the transduced cells for the analysis of cell autonomous and non-autonomous, niche-dependent effects in the labeled cells and their progeny.

Here we describe a procedure based on the use of lentiviral particles for the long-term genetic modification of neural stem cells and/or their adjacent ependymal cells in the adult ventricular-subventricular neurogenic niche which allows the separate analysis of cell autonomous and non-autonomous, niche-dependent effects on neural stem cells.

Relatively quiescent somatic stem cells support life-long cell renewal in most adult tissues. Neural stem cells in the adult mammalian brain are ...

Developmental Biology

Packaging HIV- or FIV-based Lentivector Expression Constructs &amp; Transduction of VSV-G Pseudotyped Viral Particles

As with standard plasmid vectors, it is possible to transfect lentivectors in plasmid form into cells with low-to-medium efficiency to obtain transient expression of effectors. Packaging lentiviral expression constructs into pseudoviral particles, however, enables up to 100% transduction, even with difficult-to-transfect cells, such as primary, stem, and differentiated cells. Moreover, the lentiviral delivery does not produce the specific cellular responses typically associated with chemical transfections, such as cell death resulting from toxicity of the transfection reagent 1, 2. When transduced into target cells, the lentiviral construct integrates into genomic DNA and provides stable expression of the small hairpin RNA (shRNA), cDNA, microRNA or reporter gene 3, 4. Target cells stably expressing the effector molecule can be isolated using a selectable marker contained in the expression vector construct such as puromycin or GFP. After pseudoviral particles infect target cells, they cannot replicate within target cells because the viral structural genes are absent and the long terminal repeats (LTRs) are designed to be self-inactivating upon transduction 5, 6.
There are three main components necessary for efficient lentiviral packaging 1, 5, 6, 7. 
1. The lentiviral expression vector that contains some of the genetic elements required for packaging, stable integration of the viral expression construct into genomic DNA, and expression of the effector or reporter. 
2. The lentiviral packaging plasmids that provide the proteins essential for transcription and packaging of an RNA copy of the expression construct into recombinant pseudoviral particles. This protocol uses the pPACK plasmids (SBI) that encode for gag, pol, and rev from the HIV or FIV genome and Vesicular Stomatitis Virus g protein (VSV-G) for the viral coat protein. 
3. 293TN producer cells (derived from HEK293 cells) that express the SV40 large T antigen, which is required for high-titer lentiviral production and a neomycin resistance gene, useful for reselecting the cells for maintenance.
An overview of the viral production protocol can be seen in Figure 1. Viral production starts by co-transfecting 293TN producer cells with the lentiviral expression vector and the packaging plasmids. Viral particles are secreted into the media. After 48-72 hours the cell culture media is harvested. Cellular debris is removed from the cell culture media, and the viral particles are precipitated by centrifugation with PEG-it for concentration. Produced lentiviral particles are then titered and can be used to transduce target cells. Details of viral titering are not included in this protocol, but can be found at:
<a href="http://www.systembio.com/downloads/global_titer_kit_web_090710.pdf" target="_blank">http://www.systembio.com/downloads/global_titer_kit_web_090710.pdf</a> 8.
This protocol has been optimized using the specific products indicated. Other reagents may be substituted, but the same results cannot be guaranteed.

Packaging HIV- or FIV-based Lentivector Expression Constructs & Transduction of VSV-G Pseudotyped Viral Particles

Lentiviral expression vectors are the most effective vehicles for stably expressing different effector molecules or reporter constructs in dividing and non-dividing mammalian cells and whole organisms. Here we provide a protocol on how to package lentivector expression constructs in pseudoviral particles and to transduce target cells using the pseudoviral particles.

As with standard plasmid vectors, it is possible to transfect lentivectors in plasmid form into cells with low-to-medium efficiency to obtain transient ...

Immunology and Infection

An Ecdysone Receptor-based Singular Gene Switch for Deliberate Expression of Transgene with Robustness, Reversibility, and Negligible Leakiness

Precise control of transgene expression is desirable in biological and clinical studies. However, because the binary feature of currently employed gene switches requires the transfer of two therapeutic expression units concurrently into a single cell, the practical application of the system for gene therapy is limited. To simplify the transgene expression system, we generated a gene switch designated as pEUI(+) encompassing a complete set of transgene expression modules in a single vector. Comprising of the GAL4 DNA-binding domain and modified EcR (GvEcR), a minimal VP16 activation domain fused with a GAL4 DNA-binding domain, as well as a modified Drosophila ecdysone receptor (EcR), the newly developed singular gene switch is highly responsive to the administration of a chemical inducer in a time- and dosage-dependent manner. The pEUI(+) vector is a potentially powerful tool for improving the control of transgene expression in both biological research and pre-clinical studies. Here, we present a detailed protocol for modulation of a transient and stable transgene expression using pEUI(+) vector by the treatment of tebufenozide (Teb). Additionally, we share important guidelines for the use of Teb as a chemical inducer.

Here, we present a protocol for the modulation of transgene expression using pEUI(+) singular gene switch by tebufenozide treatment.

Precise control of transgene expression is desirable in biological and clinical studies. However, because the binary feature of currently employed gene ...

Genetics

DNA Vector-based RNA Interference to Study Gene Function in Cancer

RNA interference (RNAi) inhibits gene expression by specifically degrading target mRNAs. Since the discovery of double-stranded small interference RNA (siRNA) in gene silencing1, RNAi has become a powerful research tool in gene function studies. Compared to genetic deletion, RNAi-mediated gene silencing possesses many advantages, such as the ease with which it is carried out and its suitability to most cell lines. Multiple studies have demonstrated the applications of RNAi technology in cancer research. In particular, the development of the DNA vector-based technology to produce small hairpin RNA (shRNA) driven by the U6 or H1 promoter has made long term and inducible gene silencing possible2,3. Its use in combination with genetically engineered viral vectors, such as lentivirus, facilitates high efficiencies of shRNA delivery and/or integration into genomic DNA for stable shRNA expression. 
We describe a detailed procedure using the DNA vector-based RNAi technology to determine gene function, including construction of lentiviral vectors expressing shRNA, lentivirus production and cell infection, and functional studies using a mouse xenograft model. 
Various strategies have been reported in generating shRNA constructs. The protocol described here employing PCR amplification and a 3-fragment ligation can be used to directly and efficiently generate shRNA-containing lentiviral constructs without leaving any extra nucleotide adjacent to a shRNA coding sequence. Since the shRNA-expression cassettes created by this strategy can be cut out by restriction enzymes, they can be easily moved to other vectors with different fluorescent or antibiotic markers. Most commercial transfection reagents can be used in lentivirus production. However, in this report, we provide an economic method using calcium phosphate precipitation that can achieve over 90% transfection efficiency in 293T cells. Compared to constitutive shRNA expression vectors, an inducible shRNA system is particularly suitable to knocking down a gene essential to cell proliferation. We demonstrate the gene silencing of Yin Yang 1 (YY1), a potential oncogene in breast cancer4,5, by a Tet-On inducible shRNA system and its effects on tumor formation. Research using lentivirus requires review and approval of a biosafety protocol by the Biosafety Committee of a researcher's institution. Research using animal models requires review and approval of an animal protocol by the Animal Care and Use Committee (ACUC) of a researcher's institution.

RNA interference (RNAi) possesses many advantages over gene knockout and has been broadly used as a tool in gene functional studies. The invention of DNA vector-based RNAi technology has made long term and inducible gene knockdown possible, and also increased the feasibility of gene silencing in vivo.

RNA interference (RNAi) inhibits gene expression by specifically degrading target mRNAs. Since the discovery of double-stranded small interference RNA ...

Medicine

piggyBac Transposon System Modification of Primary Human T Cells

The piggyBac transposon system is naturally active, originally derived from the cabbage looper moth1,2. This non-viral system is plasmid based, most commonly utilizing two plasmids with one expressing the piggyBac transposase enzyme and a transposon plasmid harboring the gene(s) of interest between inverted repeat elements which are required for gene transfer activity. PiggyBac mediates gene transfer through a "cut and paste" mechanism whereby the transposase integrates the transposon segment into the genome of the target cell(s) of interest. PiggyBac has demonstrated efficient gene delivery activity in a wide variety of insect1,2, mammalian3-5, and human cells6 including primary human T cells7,8. Recently, a hyperactive piggyBac transposase was generated improving gene transfer efficiency9,10.
Human T lymphocytes are of clinical interest for adoptive immunotherapy of cancer11. Of note, the first clinical trial involving transposon modification of human T cells using the Sleeping beauty transposon system has been approved12. We have previously evaluated the utility of piggyBac as a non-viral methodology for genetic modification of human T cells. We found piggyBac to be efficient in genetic modification of human T cells with a reporter gene and a non-immunogenic inducible suicide gene7. Analysis of genomic integration sites revealed a lack of preference for integration into or near known proto-oncogenes13. We used piggyBac to gene-modify cytotoxic T lymphocytes to carry a chimeric antigen receptor directed against the tumor antigen HER2, and found that gene-modified T cells mediated targeted killing of HER2-positive tumor cells in vitro and in vivo in an orthotopic mouse model14. We have also used piggyBac to generate human T cells resistant to rapamycin, which should be useful in cancer therapies where rapamycin is utilized15.
Herein, we describe a method for using piggyBac to genetically modify primary human T cells. This includes isolation of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from human blood followed by culture, gene modification, and activation of T cells. For the purpose of this report, T cells were modified with a reporter gene (eGFP) for analysis and quantification of gene expression by flow cytometry.
PiggyBac can be used to modify human T cells with a variety of genes of interest. Although we have used piggyBac to direct T cells to tumor antigens14, we have also used piggyBac to add an inducible safety switch in order to eliminate gene modified cells if needed7. The large cargo capacity of piggyBac has also enabled gene transfer of a large rapamycin resistant mTOR molecule (15 kb)15. Therefore, we present a non-viral methodology for stable gene-modification of primary human T cells for a wide variety of purposes.

piggyBac Transposon System Modification of Primary Human T Cells

We describe a method to genetically modify primary human T cells with a transgene using the non-viral piggyBac transposon system. T cells modified to using the piggyBac transposon system exhibit stable transgene expression.

The piggyBac transposon system is naturally active, originally derived from the cabbage looper moth1,2. This non-viral system is plasmid based, most ...

A Tetracycline-regulated Cell Line Produces High-titer Lentiviral Vectors that Specifically Target Dendritic Cells

Lentiviral vectors (LVs) are a powerful means of delivering genetic material to many types of cells. Because of safety concerns associated with these HIV-1 derived vectors, producing large quantities of LVs is challenging. In this paper, we report a method for producing high titers of self-inactivating LVs. We retrovirally transduce the tet-off stable producer cell line GPR to generate a cell line, GPRS, which can express all the viral components, including a dendritic cell-specific glycoprotein, SVGmu. Then, we use concatemeric DNA transfection to transfect the LV transfer plasmid encoding a reporter gene GFP in combination with a selectable marker. Several of the resulting clones can produce LV at a titer 10-fold greater than what we achieve with transient transfection. Plus, these viruses efficiently transduce dendritic cells in vitro and generate a strong T cell immune response to our reporter antigen. This method may be a good option for producing strong LV-based vaccines for clinical studies of cancer or infectious diseases.

Here, we use retroviral transduction and concatemeric transfection to create a cell line that can express the components of a lentiviral vector (LV) in the absence of tetracycline. This LV encodes GFP and is pseudotyped with a glycoprotein, SVGmu, which is specific for a receptor on dendritic cells.

Lentiviral  vectors (LVs) are a powerful means of delivering genetic material to many types  of cells. Because of safety concerns associated with these ...

Proximity Ligation Assay to Study Oncogene-Derived Transcription-Replication Conflicts

Both DNA replication and RNA transcription utilize genomic DNA as their template, necessitating spatial and temporal separation of these processes. Conflicts between the replication and transcription machinery, termed transcription-replication conflicts (TRCs), pose a considerable risk to genome stability, a critical factor in cancer development. While several factors regulating these collisions have been identified, pinpointing primary causes remains difficult due to limited tools for direct visualization and clear interpretation. In this study, we directly visualize TRCs using a proximity ligation assay (PLA), leveraging antibodies specific to PCNA and phosphorylated CTD of RNA polymerase II. This approach allows precise measurement of TRCs between replication and transcription processes mediated by RNA polymerase II. The method is further enhanced through DNA primers conjugated covalently to these antibodies, coupled with PCR amplification using fluorescent probes, providing a highly sensitive and specific means of detecting endogenous TRCs. Fluorescence microscopy enables the visualization of these conflicts, offering a powerful tool to study genome instability mechanisms associated with cancer. This technique addresses the gap in direct TRC visualization, allowing for a more comprehensive analysis and understanding of the underlying processes driving genome instability in cells.

Here, we present a sensitive and specific method to detect oncogene-induced transcription-replication conflicts (TRCs) using the proximity ligation assay (PLA). This approach leverages specific antibodies targeting PCNA and phospho-CTD RNAPII, enabling the assessment of TRC prevalence between RNA polymerase II transcription and DNA replication machinery.

Both DNA replication and RNA transcription utilize genomic DNA as their template, necessitating spatial and temporal separation of these processes. ...

Cancer Research

Optimal Lentivirus Production and Cell Culture Conditions Necessary to Successfully Transduce Primary Human Bronchial Epithelial Cells

In vitro culture of primary human bronchial epithelial (HBE) cells using air-liquid interface conditions provides a useful model to study the processes of airway cell differentiation and function. In the past few years, the use of lentiviral vectors for transgene delivery became common practice. While there are reports of transduction of fully differentiated airway epithelial cells with certain non-HIV pseudo-typed lentiviruses, the overall transduction efficiency is usually less than 15%. The protocol presented here provides a reliable and efficient method to produce lentiviruses and to transduce primary human bronchial epithelial cells. Using undifferentiated bronchial epithelial cells, transduction in bronchial epithelial growth media, while the cells attach, with a multiplicity of infection factor of 4 provides efficiencies close to 100%. This protocol describes, step-by-step, the preparation and concentration of high-titer lentiviral vectors and the transduction process. It discusses the experiments that determined the optimal culture conditions to achieve highly efficient transductions of primary human bronchial epithelial cells.

Primary human bronchial epithelial cells are difficult to transduce. This protocol describes the production of lentiviruses and their concentration as well as the optimal culture conditions necessary to achieve highly efficient transductions in these cells throughout differentiation to a pseudostratified epithelium.

In vitro culture of primary human bronchial epithelial (HBE) cells using air-liquid interface conditions provides a useful model to study the processes of ...

An Efficient In Vitro Transposition Method by a Transcriptionally Regulated Sleeping Beauty System Packaged into an Integration Defective Lentiviral Vector

The Sleeping Beauty (SB) transposon is a non-viral integrating system with proven efficacy for gene transfer and functional genomics. To optimize the SB transposon machinery, a transcriptionally regulated hyperactive transposase (SB100X) and T2-based transposon are employed. Typically, the transposase and transposon are provided transiently by plasmid transfection and SB100X expression is driven by a constitutive promoter. Here, we describe an efficient method to deliver the SB components to human cells that are resistant to several physical and chemical transfection methods, to control SB100X expression and stably integrate a gene of interest (GOI) through a &#34;cut and paste&#34; SB mechanism. The expression of hyperactive transposase is tightly controlled by the Tet-ON system, widely used to control gene expression since 1992. The gene of interest is flanked by inverted repeats (IR) of the T2 transposon. Both SB components are packaged in integration defective lentiviral vectors transiently produced in HEK293T cells. Human cells, either cell lines or primary cells from human tissue, are in vitro transiently transduced with viral vectors. Upon addition of doxycycline (dox, tetracycline analog) into the culture medium, a fine-tuning of transposase expression is measured and results in a long-lasting integration of the gene of interest in the genome of the treated cells. This method is efficient and applicable to the cell line (e.g., HeLa cells) and primary cells (e.g., human primary keratinocytes), and thus represents a valuable tool for genetic engineering and therapeutic gene transfer.

An Efficient In Vitro Transposition Method by a Transcriptionally Regulated Sleeping Beauty System Packaged into an Integration Defective Lentiviral Vector

This protocol describes a method to achieve stable integration of a gene of interest into the human genome by the transcriptionally regulated Sleeping Beauty system. Preparation of the integration of defective lentiviral vectors, the in vitro transduction of human cells, and the molecular assay on transduced cells are reported.

The Sleeping Beauty (SB) transposon is a non-viral integrating system with proven efficacy for gene transfer and functional genomics. To optimize the SB ...

Expression of Fluorescent Fusion Proteins in Murine Bone Marrow-derived Dendritic Cells and Macrophages

Dendritic cells and macrophages are crucial cells that form the first line of defense against pathogens. They also play important roles in the initiation of an adaptive immune response. Experimental work with these cells is rather challenging. Their abundance in organs and tissues is relatively low. As a result, they cannot be isolated in large numbers. They are also difficult to transfect with cDNA constructs. In the murine model, these problems can be partially overcome by in vitro differentiation from bone marrow progenitors in the presence of M-CSF for macrophages or GM-CSF for dendritic cells. In this way, it is possible to obtain large amounts of these cells from very few animals. Moreover, bone marrow progenitors can be transduced with retroviral vectors carrying cDNA constructs during early stages of cultivation prior to their differentiation into bone marrow derived dendritic cells and macrophages. Thus, retroviral transduction followed by differentiation in vitro can be used to express various cDNA constructs in these cells. The ability to express ectopic proteins substantially extends the range of experiments that can be performed on these cells, including live cell imaging of fluorescent proteins, tandem purifications for interactome analyses, structure-function analyses, monitoring of cellular functions with biosensors and many others. In this article, we describe a detailed protocol for retroviral transduction of murine bone marrow derived dendritic cells and macrophages with vectors coding for fluorescently-tagged proteins. On the example of two adaptor proteins, OPAL1 and PSTPIP2, we demonstrate its practical application in flow cytometry and microscopy. We also discuss the advantages and limitations of this approach.

In this article, we provide a detailed protocol for the expression of fluorescent fusion proteins in murine bone marrow derived dendritic cells and macrophages. The method is based on the transduction of bone marrow progenitors with retroviral constructs followed by differentiation into macrophages and dendritic cells in vitro.

Dendritic cells and macrophages are crucial cells that form the first line of defense against pathogens. They also play important roles in the initiation ...

Transduction of Human Cells with Polymer-complexed Ecotropic Lentivirus for Enhanced Biosafety

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