title: Advantages of COS-1 monkey kidney epithelial cells as packaging host for small-volume production of high-quality recombinant lentiviruses.
abstract: The HEK293T human embryonic kidney cells have been used widely as a packaging host for transfection-based production of recombinant lentiviruses. The present study describes advantages of using COS-1 African green monkey kidney cells versus HEK293T cells as a packaging host for small-volume production of high-quality recombinant lentiviruses. The particle performance index, defined as the ratio of infection-competent viral particles to the total number of particles, was three- to four-fold greater in transfection supernatants generated using COS-1 cells than that generated using HEK293T cells. Adhesion of HEK293T cells to the cell culture-treated plastic surface was weak, causing significant HEK293T cell contamination in the transfection supernatants produced by laboratory automation using the 96-well cell culture plates. In contrast, COS-1 cells adhered strongly to the plastic surface, and cell contamination was not detected in the transfection supernatants. These results suggest that COS-1 cells may be a useful alternative packaging host for use for automated generation of large numbers of high-quality lentivirus reagents, particularly because they eliminate the need for additional purification steps to remove viral particles from cell culture supernatant.
authors.affiliation: Molecular Profiling Laboratory, Massachusetts General Hospital Center for Cancer Research and Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA 02129, USA.
authors.forename: Shannon L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.forename: Toshi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Shioda
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D019556:COS Cells; D002448:Cell Adhesion; D018929:Cell Culture Techniques / Q000379:methods; D002522:Chlorocebus aethiops; D004847:Epithelial Cells / Q000821:virology*; D016086:Lentivirus / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D019065:Virus Assembly; D014779:Virus Replication