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AssigneeChiron Corporation
InventorsJames G. Respess, Nicholas J. DePolo, Sunil Chada, Sybille Sauter, Mordechai Bodner, David A. Driver
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Retroviral vector constructs are described which have a 5′ LTR, a tRNA binding site, a packaging signal, one or more heterologous sequences, an origin of second strand synthesis and a 3′ LTR, wherein the vector construct lacks retroviral gag/pol or env coding sequences. In addition, gag/pol, and env expression cassettes are described wherein the expression cassettes lack a consecutive sequence of more than 8 nucleotides in common. The above-described retroviral vector constructs, gag/pol and env expression cassettes may be utilized to construct producer cell lines which preclude the formation of replication competent virus.
A gag/pol expression cassette, comprising a promoter operably linked to a gag/pol gene, and a polyadenylation sequence, wherein a 5′ terminal end of said gag/pol gene has been modified to contain codons which are degenerate for gag.
A gag/pol expression cassette, comprising a promoter operably linked to a gag/pol gene, and a polyadenylation sequence, wherein a 3′ terminal end of said gag/pol gene has been deleted without affecting the biological activity of integrase.
An env expression cassette, comprising a promoter operably linked to an env gene, and a polyadenylation sequence, wherein no more than 6 retroviral nucleotides are included upstream of said env gene.
An env expression cassette, comprising a promoter operably linked to an env gene, and a polyadenylation sequence, wherein said env expression cassette does not contain a consecutive sequence of more than 8 nucleotides which are found in a gag/pol gene.
An env expression cassette, comprising a promoter operably linked to an env gene, and a polyadenylation sequence, wherein a 3′ terminal end of said env gene has been deleted without affecting the biological activity of env.
A packaging cell line, comprising a gag/pol expression cassette and an env expression cassette, wherein said gag/pol expression cassette lacks a consecutive sequence of greater than 8 consecutive nucleotides which are found in said env expression cassette.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.