A novel, helper-dependent, adenovirus-retrovirus hybrid vector: stable transduction by a two-stage mechanism.

We have developed a novel vector system that uses a helper-dependent adenoviral vector as a carrier to deliver a fully functional retrovirus vector. The helper-dependent adenovirus (HDAd) can accommodate large inserts, provide high titers, and infect nondividing as well as dividing cells. However, adenoviral DNA is rarely integrated into the host cell genome, and its episomal expression is transient. Therefore we inserted a replication-competent, ecotropic retrovirus vector containing the green fluorescent protein (GFP) reporter gene as a second-stage component. The well-characterized host species tropism of each vector component provided a stringent biological assay system that demonstrates the two-stage transduction mechanism of the hybrid vector, because the adenovirus stage can efficiently transduce human cells but cannot replicate in murine cells, and conversely, the ecotropic retrovirus stage cannot enter human cells but can efficiently proliferate in murine cells, resulting in permanent integration and progressive spread of reporter gene expression.