title: A novel purification strategy for retrovirus gene therapy vectors using heparin affinity chromatography.
abstract: Membrane separation and chromatographic technologies are regarded as an attractive alternative to conventional academic small-scale ultracentrifugation procedures used for retrovirus purification. However, despite the increasing demands for purified retroviral vector preparations, new chromatography adsorbents with high specificity for the virus have not been reported. Heparin affinity chromatography is presented here as a novel convenient tool for retrovirus purification. The ability of bioactive retroviral particles to specifically bind to heparin ligands immobilized on a chromatographic gel is shown. A purification factor of 63 with a recovery of 61% of functional retroparticles was achieved using this single step. Tentacle heparin affinity supports captured retroviral particles more efficiently than conventional heparin affinity chromatography supports with which a lower recovery was obtained (18%). Intact, infective retroviral particles were recovered by elution with low salt concentrations (350 mM NaCl). Mild conditions for retrovirus elution from chromatographic columns are required to preserve virus infectivity. VSV-G pseudotyped retroviruses have shown to be very sensitive to high ionic strength, losing 50% of their activity and showing membrane damage after a short exposure to 1M NaCl. We also report a complete scaleable downstream processing scheme for the purification of MoMLV-derived vectors that involves sequential microfiltration and ultra/diafiltration steps for virus clarification and concentration respectively, followed by fractionation by heparin affinity chromatography and final polishing by size-exclusion chromatography. Overall, by using this strategy, a 38% yield of infective particles can be achieved with a final purification factor of 2,000.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering, Centre de Recherche sur la Fonction, la Structure et l'lngénierie des Protéines, Université Laval, Québec, Canada, G1K 7P4.
authors.forename: María de las Mercedes
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Segura
authors.forename: Amine
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kamen
authors.forename: Pierre
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Trudel
authors.forename: Alain
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Garnier
mesh_terms: D002846:Chromatography, Affinity / Q000379:methods*; D015316:Genetic Therapy; D005822:Genetic Vectors / Q000737:chemistry / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D006493:Heparin / Q000737:chemistry*; D012190:Retroviridae / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*
chemical_list: D006493:Heparin