AAV Expression and Packaging

Packaging an infective recombinant adeno-associated virus (AAV) requires the presence of certain adenoviral gene products. The AAV Helper Free System eliminates the need for a helper adenovirus, making the system safer and more convenient. Most of the required adenoviral gene products (E2A, E4, and VA RNA) are present in a pHelper plasmid; the E1 adenovirus gene is supplied by the 293 host cell line.

We offer a broad range of AAV Helper Free Systems:

  • AAV native serotypes 1 through 6
  • AAV-DJ, engineered by DNA family shuffling to create a hybrid capsid from 8 different native serotypes; AAV-DJ vectors convey significantly higher infectivity rates compared to native serotypes across a broad range of tissue and cell types
  • AAV-DJ/8, a mutant of AAV-DJ that exhibits increased uptake in brain tissue and other tissues in vivo, similar to native serotypes 8 and 9

Relative in vitro Infectivity1 of AAV Vectors:

Cell Line AAV-1 AAV-2 AAV-3 AAV-4 AAV-5 AAV-6 AAV-8 AAV-9 AAV-DJ AAV-DJ/8
Huh-7 13 100 2.5 0.0 0.1 10 0.7 0.0 500 0.2
HEK293 25 100 2.5 0.1 0.1 5 0.7 0.1 500 0.3
HeLa 3 100 2.0 0.1 6.7 1 0.2 0.1 667 0.2
HepG2 3 100 16.7 0.3 1.7 5 0.3 ND 1250 0.5
Hep1A 20 100 0.2 1.0 0.1 1 0.2 0.0 400 0.1
911 17 100 11 0.2 0.1 17 0.1 ND 500 0.0
CHO 100 100 14 1.4 333 50 10 1.0 25000 5.0
COS 33 100 33 3.3 5.0 14 2.0 0.5 500 0.3
MeWo 10 100 20 0.3 6.7 10 1.0 0.2 2857 1.0
NIH3T3 10 100 2.9 2.9 0.3 10 0.3 ND 500 0.1
A549 14 100 20 ND 0.5 10 0.5 0.1 1000 0.1
HT1180 20 100 10 0.1 0.3 33 0.5 0.1 333 0.2
Monocytes 1111 100 ND ND 125 1429 ND ND 100 ND
Immature DC 2500 100 ND ND 222 2857 ND ND 200 ND
Mature DC 2222 100 ND ND 333 3333 ND ND 100 ND

Note: Infectivity rates normalized to AAV-2 = 100. ND = Not Determined

AAV Helper Free vector technologies are available in the following formats:

1. Grimm, D. et al. (2008). J. Virol. 82: 5887-5911.