title: Impact of splice-site mutations of the human MDR1 cDNA on its stability and expression following retroviral gene transfer.
abstract: The multidrug resistance 1 (MDR1) gene transfer to hematopoietic cells for protection against cytotoxic drugs has received considerable attention in gene therapy. However, ectopic expression of MDR1 from retroviral vectors has been hampered by its genetic instability resulting from cryptic splice sites within the cDNA. We have evaluated the efficiency of retroviral MDR1 vectors with introduced mutations of the MDR1 cryptic splice donor (cSD) located at nucleotide +339 and of the cryptic splice acceptor (cSA) at nucleotide +2319 of the cDNA. Sequence alterations of the cSD reduced the expression of MDR1 P-glycoprotein (P-gp), even when generated as silent mutations. A silent mutation of the cSA reduced the splicing activity shifting the splice acceptor site one base downstream; however, it significantly improved the expression of P-gp. The incidence of wild-type MDR1 pregenome splicing was markedly reduced when vectors were produced in human 293 packaging cells as opposed to murine PG13 and GP+envAm12. We conclude that complete splice correction of MDR1 in retroviral vectors may only be achieved with extensive alterations of the cDNA or neighboring vector sequences and that the splicing is significantly influenced by the choice of the packaging cells.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Hematology and Blood Transfusion, Prague, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Cmejlova
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hildinger
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Cmejla
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Fuchs
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Kalabova
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Baum
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Jelinek
mesh_terms: D020168:ATP Binding Cassette Transporter, Subfamily B, Member 1 / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D018076:DNA, Complementary / Q000235:genetics; D015870:Gene Expression; D018014:Gene Transfer Techniques; D019450:Genes, MDR / Q000235:genetics*; D005822:Genetic Vectors; D006801:Humans; D020014:K562 Cells; D051379:Mice; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016297:Mutagenesis, Site-Directed; D022821:RNA Splice Sites / Q000235:genetics*; D012190:Retroviridae / Q000235:genetics; D014161:Transduction, Genetic
chemical_list: D020168:ATP Binding Cassette Transporter, Subfamily B, Member 1; D018076:DNA, Complementary; D022821:RNA Splice Sites