Chimeric Ad5 vectors expressing the short fiber of Ad41 show reduced affinity for human intestinal epithelium

Altering adenovirus tropism has attracted increased attention in recent years to improve gene delivery. We constructed a recombinant Ad5 vector carrying the non-CAR (coxsackievirus and adenovirus receptor) binding short fiber of enterotropic Ad41 (Ad5SHORT) and tested its transduction efficiency on enterocytes. Ad5SHORT was engineered, in high titers similar to the parent vector, by homologous recombination in Escherichia coli BJ5183 (recBC sbcBC) and propagated on C7 cells. Western blotting confirmed the presence of Ad41 short fiber on Ad5SHORT while lack of CAR-binding was evident by the low transduction of CHO-CAR cells. Transduction efficiency of enterocytes, the natural target tissue for the fiber-donor virus Ad41, was tested in human intestinal biopsy cultures and in Caco-2 cells, including ulcerative colitis tissue and mucosal wound healing models. Ad5SHORT exhibited up to 23-fold lower transduction levels compared to Ad5 in human intestinal biopsy cultures and up to 13-fold in the in vitro systems. The differences with the in vitro systems were more pronounced when less differentiated cells were used. These studies highlight the potential for using this chimeric Ad5/Ad41 vector as a scaffold for the development of retargeted adenoviral vectors. Finally, our results suggest that the short fiber does not appear to be mediating, at least by itself, the increased enterocyte affinity of Ad41.