A method of limited replication for the efficient in vivo delivery of adenovirus to cancer cells.

Replication-deficient viral vectors are currently being used in gene transfer strategies to treat cancer cells. Unfortunately, viruses are limited in their ability to diffuse through tissue. This makes it virtually impossible to infect the majority of tumor cells in vivo and results in inadequate gene transfer. This problem can be addressed by allowing limited viral replication. Limited viral replication facilitates greater penetration of virions into tissue and can improve gene transfer. We have developed a strategy of limited viral replication using AdRSVlaclys, a chemically modified E1-deleted adenovirus, to codeliver an exogenous plasmid encoding the adenovirus E1 region. This system allows one round of viral replication. We examined the effect of this limited adenovirus replication in vitro and in vivo. In culture, codelivery of virus and pE1 resulted in a large increase in infected cells when compared with control cells exposed to virus and pUC19. In experiments on nude mice bearing HeLa ascites tumors, intraperitoneal injection of AdRSVlaclys/pE1 resulted in a significantly higher percentage of infected HeLa cells as compared with the PBS controls (p < 0.05) or the AdRSVlaclys/pUC19 controls (p < 0.01). These data demonstrate that the transcomplementation of replication-deficient adenovirus with exogenous E1 DNA leads to limited replication, and this controlled replication enhances gene transfer efficiency of adenovirus in vivo.