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AssigneeMedical Research Council
InventorsStephen J. Russell, Robert E. Hawkins, Gregory P. Winter
Estimating the term…
We have made retrovirus particles displaying a functional antibody fragment. We fused the gene encoding an antibody fragment directed against a hapten with that encoding the viral envelope protein (Pr80env) of the ecotropic Moloney murine leukemia virus. The fusion gene was co-expressed in ecotropic retroviral packaging cells with a retroviral plasmid carrying the neomycin phosphotransferase gene (neo), and retroviral particles with specific hapten biding activities were recovered. Furthermore the hapten-binding particles were able to transfer the neo gene and the antibody-envelope fusion gene to mouse fibroblasts. In principle, the display of antibody fragments on the surface of recombinant retroviral particles could be used to target virus to cells for gene delivery, or to retain the virus in target tissues, or for the construction of libraries of viral display packages.
A recombinant retroviral particle that infects eukaryotic cells, comprising (a) a fusion protein comprising a non viral polypeptide fused at the amino-terminus or within seven amino acid residues of the amino terminus of a substantially intact viral glycoprotein said non viral polypeptide being, displayed on the external surface of the particle;
A recombinant retroviral particle that infects eukaryotic cells, comprising a non viral polypeptide fused at the amino-terminus or within seven amino acid residues of the amino terminus of substantially intact viral glycoprotein and displayed on the external surface of the particle.
A DNA construct suitable for generation of a library of retroviral display packages, comprising a nucleotide sequence encoding a substantially intact viral glycoprotein containing a site for insertion at the amino terminus or within seven amino acids of the amino terminus of said substantially intact viral glycoprotein of a sequence from a library of sequences encoding non viral polypeptides that permits in-frame fusion of the non viral polypeptide to said viral glycoprotein to form a fusion protein that is displayed on the external surface of a viral particle;
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.