Highlights
Lower cost
• It allows for better control over product quality, giving it a significant advantage in later stages of industrialization.
Overview
Retroviruses , also known as retrotraceromycin , are a type of RNA virus whose genetic information is stored on RNA, not DNA. Unlike other RNA viruses, retroviral RNA does not self-replicate. After entering a host cell, the reverse transcriptase in the viral nucleus transcribes the RNA into cDNA, which is then used to synthesize double-stranded DNA. Integrase integrates this double-stranded DNA into the host cell's chromosomal DNA, thus introducing non-viral genes into the cell. These genes can then be transferred to daughter cells through mitosis in vitro. Retroviruses specifically infect dividing cells, such as embryonic stem cells, neural stem cells, hematopoietic stem cells, and blood cells. In practical applications, retroviral vectors are frequently used in cell and gene therapy due to their wide transfection range and high transfection rate. Aretroviral vector ( RVV ) is a viral expression vector designed based on the characteristics of retroviruses. By deleting some or all genes encoding viral particle structural proteins, and retaining only the cis-acting viral sequences necessary for viral packaging and transduction, more space is created for inserting foreign genes and partially inactivating the virus. This makes it easier to package large foreign gene fragments and improves safety. To generate infectious viral particles from non-replicating retroviral plasmids, the packaging cells used at Shenzhen Cell Valley provide viral structural proteins encoded by the gag, pol, and env genes. Only a single plasmid carrying the foreign gene needs to be transfected into the packaging cell line, and a stable retroviral cell line can be obtained through a two-step packaging method. By utilizing packaging cell lines expressing retroviral gag, pol capsid/reverse transcriptase, and env envelope proteins, pseudoviral particles with infectious capacity but no viral replication ability are generated. This stable retroviral cell line can produce retroviruses long-term with better batch-to-batch stability. Furthermore, the titer of retroviral vectors can be further improved through monoclonal selection , enabling industrial-scale production of retroviral vectors . Examples of currently mass-producible carrier products