AVS 61st International Symposium & Exhibition
    Biomaterial Interfaces Wednesday Sessions
       Session BI+MG-WeA

Paper BI+MG-WeA7
An Encapsulation Technique for Adenovirus to Enhance Viral Gene Therapy

Wednesday, November 12, 2014, 4:20 pm, Room 317

Session: Design and Discovery: Biointerfaces
Presenter: Natalie Mendez, University of California at San Diego
Authors: N. Mendez, University of California at San Diego
V. Herrera, University of California at San Diego
L. Zhang, University of California at San Diego
F. Hedjran, University of California at San Diego
W. Trogler, University of California at San Diego
S.L. Blair, University of California at San Diego
A.C. Kummel, University of California at San Diego
Correspondent: Click to Email
Oncolytic viruses (OVs) constitute a promising class of cancer therapeutics which exploit validated genetic pathways known to be deregulated in many cancers. To overcome an immune response and to enhance its potential use to treat primary and metastatic tumors, a method for liposomal encapsulation of adenovirus has been developed. The encapsulation of adenovirus in anionic 140-180nm diameter PEG containing non-toxic liposomes has been prepared by self-assembly of lecithin around the viral capsid. The encapsulated viruses retain their ability to infect cancer cells. Furthermore, an immunoprecipitation (IP) technique has shown to be a fast and effective method to extract non-encapsulated viruses and homogenize the liposomes remaining in solution. 76% of adenovirus plaque forming units were encapsulated and retained infectivity after IP processing. Additionally, encapsulated viruses have shown enhanced transfection efficiency up to 4X higher compared to non-encapsulated Ads. Extracting non-encapsulated viruses from solution may prevent an adverse in vivo immune response and may enhance treatment for multiple administrations.