Drug – bio-affecting and body treating compositions – Antigen – epitope – or other immunospecific immunoeffector – Recombinant virus encoding one or more heterologous proteins...
Reexamination Certificate
2001-10-05
2004-08-10
Salimi, Ali R. (Department: 1648)
Drug, bio-affecting and body treating compositions
Antigen, epitope, or other immunospecific immunoeffector
Recombinant virus encoding one or more heterologous proteins...
C424S184100, C424S204100, C435S320100, C435S235100
Reexamination Certificate
active
06773709
ABSTRACT:
The invention relates to adenoviruses. The large family of adenoviruses is subdivided according to its host into adenoviruses which infect mammals (the mastadenoviridae) and adenoviruses which infect birds (the aviadenoviridae). The CELO virus (Chicken Embryo Lethal Orphan; article by Mcferran, et al., 1977; McCracken and Adair, 1993) was identified as an infectious agent in 1957 (Yates and Fry, 1957). CELO virus is classified as a poultry adenovirus type 1 (FAV-1) and first aroused interest because of its property of being tumorigenic in baby hamsters. However, since infection with the CELO virus does not have any serious health and economic consequences, the interest in this virus disappeared in recent years. The FAV-1 adenoviruses can be isolated from healthy chickens and do not cause any disease when reintroduced experimentally into chickens (Cowen, et al., 1978). Their isolation from sick birds is presumably the result of adenovirus replication in a host which has an immune system weakened by other influences.
The general structural organisation of CELO virus, with an icosahedral capsid of 70-80 nm, made up of hexon and penton structures, is similar to that of the mammalian adenoviruses (Layer, et al., 1971). The CELO virus genome is a linear, double-stranded DNA molecule, the DNA being condensed inside the virion by virus-coded core proteins (Layer et al., 1971; Li, et al., 1984b). The CELO virus genome has covalently bound terminal proteins (Li, et al., 1983) and the genome has inverted terminal repeats (ITRs), although they are shorter than the mammalian ITRs (Aleström, et al., 1982b; Sheppard and Trist, 1992). The CELO virus codes a protease with 61-69% homology for the mammalian adenovirus proteases (Cai and Weber, 1993).
There are significant differences between CELO virus and the mastadenoviruses. CELO virus has a larger genome, with sequence homology with Ad5 which can only be detected in two short regions of the CELO virus genome (by hybridisation) (Aleström, et al., 1982a). The CELO virion has been reported to have two fibres of different lengths at each vertex. The CELO virus cannot complement the E1A functions of Ad5, and the replication of CELO virus is not made easier by the activity of Ad5E1 (Li, et al., 1984c).
Within the scope of the present invention, total sequence analysis of the CELO virus was carried out; on the one hand because it is useful for understanding the biology of adenoviruses to clarify the genomic organisation of an adenovirus which is very remote from the mammalian adenoviruses generally studied. Since the conditions for transmission and survival for a virus which infects a type of bird are presumably different than for mammalian viruses, it is possible that the bird adenoviruses have acquired new virus functions or exhibit a higher degree of variability than the mastadenoviridae. The complete CELO virus sequence also permits changes in the CELO virus genome with respect to functional analysis.
Since adenovirus vectors have proved highly effective vectors for gene transfer (see the summarising article by Graham, 1990; Kozarsky and Wilson, 1993; Trapnell and Gorziglia, 1994), the complete CELO virus sequence, on the other hand, is particularly interesting as the basis for preparing new recombinant vectors for gene transfer.
Sequence analysis has shown that the CELO virus genome has 43.8 kb, being more than 8 kb longer than the human subtypes Ad2 and Ad5. The genes for the main structural proteins (hexon, penton based, IIIa, fibres, pVI, pVII, pVIII) are on the one hand both present and also located at the corresponding sites in the genome. The genes of the early region 2 (E2; DNA binding protein, DNA polymerase and terminal protein) are also present. However, the CELO virus lacks sequences homologous to the regions E1, E3 and E4 of the mammalian adenoviruses.
There are approximately 5 kb at the left hand end and 15 kb at the right hand end of the CELO virus genome, where there is only restricted homology or no homology at all with the mastadenovirus genomes. These new sequences contain a number of open reading frames, and it can be assumed that these code for functions which replace the missing E1, E3 and possibly E4 regions.
Parts of the CELO virus sequence have already been published; they are listed in Table 1, as are the differences between the sequence known from the databank and the sequence determined within the scope of the present invention. From studies concentrating on specific viral genes, a homolog of the VA RNA gene of mastadenovirus was known (Larsson, et al., 1986) and part of the genome sequence which carries the endoprotease has been described (Cai and Weber, 1993). In addition, fragments of the CELO virus genome have been published (Akopian, et al., 1990; Akopian, et al., 1992; Hess, et al., 1995). The sequence of the penton base of the related virus FAV-10 has also been reported (Sheppard and Trist, 1992). Some other sequence fragments have been deposited in the databank and are also shown in Table 1. In all, about 50% of the CELO virus genome is available in the form of fragments (total about 24 kb). The sequence obtained within the scope of the present invention is complete and has the advantage of having been obtained from a single isolated material.
The total sequence of the CELO virus is shown in the sequence listing (in the sequence listing the word “complementary” indicates that the open reading frames are present in the reverse arrangement). It shows a large number of striking differences between Ad2 and the CELO virus. The organisation of the recognisable open reading frames (ORFs) of the CELO virus genome based on the sequence analysis, compared with Ad2, is shown in FIG.
1
A: the Figure shows an overview of the genomic organisation of Ad2/5 and CELO virus. The arrows indicate the position of the coding regions but not the exact cleavage patterns of the gene products. The pattern of the CELO virus also (in the first 6,000 bp and in the last 13,000 bp) gives all the non-associated open reading frames which begin with a methionine and which code for more than 99 amino acid groups. The central region of the two genomes which show homology on the basis of dot matrix analysis (cf.
FIG. 3
) and the regions at the ends of the CELO virus genome which have no homology with other adenoviruses (“unique to CELO”) are given. The abbreviations in the Figure, which also correspond to those in the Tables, have the following meanings: PB, penton base; EP, endoproteinase; DBP, DNA binding protein; bTP, pre-terminal protein; pol, DNA polymerase.
The sequenced CELO virus genome has a length of 43,804 bp and has a content of G+C of 54.3%. It had already been presumed at an earlier stage that the CELO virus genome is much larger than the mastadenovirus genome with 34-36 kb; it has been found that the CELO virus DNA has a weight of 30×10
6
Daltons, determined according to its sedimentation coefficient (Layer, et al., 1971), compared with 24×10
6
Daltons for Ad2 (Green, et al., 1967). The size of the CELO virus genome determined by the addition of the restriction fragments is about 43 kb (Cai and Weber, 1993; Denisova, et al., 1979). A Pulsed Field Gel Analysis of the CELO virus genome isolated from purified virions is shown in FIG.
2
A and is compared with the DNA isolated from Ads dl1014 (34,600 bp; Bridge and Ketner, 1989) or Wild-type Ad5-virions (35,935 bp; vt300; Chroboczek, et al., 1992; Jones and Shenk, 1978); a mixture of uncleaved bacteriophage &lgr;-DNA and &ggr;-DNA cleaved with five different restriction enzymes (Biorad) was used as the size marker (tracks
1
and
7
show the molecular weight markers, track
2
shows the DNA of Ad5 dl1014, track
3
shows the DNA of Ad5 wt300, track
4
shows the CELO virus DNA, track
5
shows the DNA of OTE, track
6
shows the DNA of Indiana C).
FIG. 2A
shows that the CELO virus genome has a length of 44 kb. From this analysis it is clear that the CELO virus genome is actually substantially larger than the genome of the mammalian virus. Calculations based on
Baker Adam
Chiocca Susanna
Cotten Matthew
Kurzbauer Robert
Schaffner Gotthold
Boehringer Ingelheim International GmbH
Salimi Ali R.
Sterne Kessler Goldstein & Fox P.L.L.C.
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