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(The FASEB Journal. 1999;13:727-734.)
© 1999 FASEB


Research Communications

Gene transfer to mammalian cells using genetically targeted filamentous bacteriophage

DAVID LAROCCA*, PAUL D. KASSNER, ALISON WITTE, ROBERT CHARLES LADNERa, GLENN F. PIERCE and ANDREW BAIRD

Selective Genetics Inc., San Diego, California 92121, USA; and

a Dyax Corporation, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02115, USA


   ABSTRACT
TOP
ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION
MATERIALS AND METHODS
RESULTS
DISCUSSION
REFERENCES
 
We have genetically modified filamentous bacteriophage to deliver genes to mammalian cells. In previous studies we showed that noncovalently attached fibroblast growth factor (FGF2) can target bacteriophage to COS-1 cells, resulting in receptor-mediated transduction with a reporter gene. Thus, bacteriophage, which normally lack tropism for mammalian cells, can be adapted for mammalian cell gene transfer. To determine the potential of using phage-mediated gene transfer as a novel display phage screening strategy, we transfected COS-1 cells with phage that were engineered to display FGF2 on their surface coat as a fusion to the minor coat protein, pIII. Immunoblot and ELISA analysis confirmed the presence of FGF2 on the phage coat. Significant transduction was obtained in COS-1 cells with the targeted FGF2-phage compared with the nontargeted parent phage. Specificity was demonstrated by successful inhibition of transduction in the presence of excess free FGF2. Having demonstrated mammalian cell transduction by phage displaying a known gene targeting ligand, it is now feasible to apply phage-mediated transduction as a screen for discovering novel ligands.—Larocca, D., Kassner, P. D., Witte, A., Ladner, R. C., Pierce, G., Baird, A. Gene transfer to mammalian cells using genetically targeted filamentous bacteriophage.


Key Words: phage display • transfection • receptor-mediated • ligand


   INTRODUCTION
TOP
ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION
MATERIALS AND METHODS
RESULTS
DISCUSSION
REFERENCES
 
THE SELECTION OF affinity ligands from libraries of highly diverse peptides, cDNA encoded proteins, or antibodies displayed on the surface of phage has proved to be a successful strategy for ligand discovery because genes encoding binding peptides can be recovered from selected phage (1) . Moreover, this method has been used to express various biologically active proteins, including growth factors, on phage 2-8) , and therefore allows functional screening for mutations with improved properties. As originally described, phage libraries were screened by `biopanning' against purified target protein bound to a solid phase. More recent variations of phage display include selecting cell targeting ligands by screening phage libraries against whole cells (9) or even in vivo for identification of organ-specific ligands (10) . The advantage of selection on cells is that cell-specific binding and internalizing ligands can be identified without previous knowledge or purification of the receptor. Our goal is to further adapt ligand display phage to both internalize and transduce the target cells, thus making it possible to directly select cell-specific ligands that are capable of binding and functional internalization. Since internalization is required but might not be sufficient for gene delivery, we anticipate that transduction screening will identify ligands that are particularly suitable for gene transfer.

Alternative ligands could greatly improve existing vectors for therapeutic gene delivery by targeting specific cells, thus reducing toxicity and allowing vectors to be administered systemically (11) . In an effort to increase vector selectivity and potency, growth factors and other cell-specific ligands that bind cell surface receptors have been used for targeting both nonviral and viral vectors (12) . For example, we used fibroblast growth factor (FGF2)1 to target DNA condensates (13) and adenovirus 14, 15) to cells that overexpress FGF receptors, such as occurs in certain tumor cells and after injury. Targeting can even be applied to a single-stranded DNA bacterial virus, which normally has no tropism for mammalian cells. Recently, we showed that a modified filamentous bacteriophage can be specifically targeted to FGF receptor-bearing cells with noncovalently attached FGF2, resulting in successful foreign transgene expression (16) . Based on these observations, we reasoned that if targeted phage transduction could also be accomplished by genetically displaying a targeting ligand on the phage surface, it would then be feasible to identify novel ligands by direct selection of those that mediate gene transfer.

In the present study, we transduced COS-1 cells with filamentous phage displaying a known gene targeting ligand, FGF2. We constructed FGF2 display phage by fusing the FGF2 gene to the pIII gene encoding the minor coat protein. The phage were modified for transduction of mammalian cells by inserting a green fluorescent protein (GFP) reporter gene transcriptionally driven by the cytomegalovirus immediate early promoter (CMV) into the phage genome. Specificity of the FGF2-phage-mediated transduction was demonstrated by inhibition of transduction in the presence of excess free FGF2. These data support our hypothesis that phage transduction can be used to screen display libraries for novel ligands capable of gene transfer.


   MATERIALS AND METHODS
TOP
ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION
MATERIALS AND METHODS
RESULTS
DISCUSSION
REFERENCES
 
Materials
The FGF2 used in the competition experiments described here and for preparing the biotinylated FGF2 (16) was mutagenized so that the cysteine at position 96 in wild-type FGF2 had been changed to serine. It was produced and purified as described previously (17) . This single mutant contains one free cysteine, which simplified the chemical derivitization with biotin. Homogeneity was established by amino acid analysis, amino-terminal sequence analyses, and using mass spectroscopy to determine the molecular mass. All other materials and reagents described in this study were purchased where indicated.

Modification of phage for mammalian cell reporter gene expression
A mammalian cell expression cassette consisting of the SV40 origin of replication (SVori), the CMV immediate early promoter, a multiple cloning site, and the bovine growth hormone (BGH) polyadenylation and transcriptional termination signals was inserted into an ampicillin-resistant M13 phage vector, MANP, to create the MCMV vector. These elements were assembled using splice overlap extension-polymerase chain reaction (SOE-PCR) (18) . Briefly, the primer pairs [1, 2], [3, 4], and [5, 6] (Table 1 ) were used to amplify SVori and CMV DNA fragments from pEGFP-N1 (Clontech, Palo Alto, Calif.), and the primer pair [7, 8] (Table 1) was used to amplify the BGH DNA terminator fragment from pcDNA3.1 (Invitrogen, Carlsbad, Calif.). DNA fragments were gel purified, combined, and used as template for amplification using flanking primers 1 and 8. The resulting 1 kb product was subcloned into the unique PvuII site of the MANP vector. The EGFP gene is human codon optimized and has a mutation, described by Cormack et al. (19) , that results in a 35-fold increase in fluorescence intensity over wild-type GFP. The EGFP gene was amplified from pEGFP-N1 (Clontech) by PCR with primers 9 and 10 (Table 1) , subcloned into SmaI digested pBS+ (Stratagene, San Diego, Calif.). After sequencing, the EGFP gene was removed with BssHII and XbaI and inserted into the multiple cloning site of the BssHII/XbaI digested MCMV phage vector to create MG3. This vector encodes a short peptide extension on the amino terminus of pIII (CGPSPPVRWC).


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Table 1. Oligonucleotides used in phage vector construction:

Construction of FGF2 display phage
To avoid potential folding and aggregation problems that might occur as a result of expressing the FGF2 (C96S) mutant with an unpaired cysteine (C78), we created DNA encoding a 155 amino acid double mutant of mature FGF2 (C78S,C96S) and inserted it in frame with the pIII gene of M13, using the NcoI and PstI sites in the MG3 vector (Fig. 1 ) such that the insert is downstream from the pIII signal peptide encoding sequence. The DNA sequence between the NcoI and PstI sites encoding the peptide (CGPSPPVRWC) was replaced with the FGF2 gene. The double mutant was created by site-directed mutagenesis of a FGF2 C96S mutant (17) . SOE-PCR was used to amplify DNA from the FGF2 template using primer pairs [11, 12], and [13, 14] (Table 1) . Amplified DNA fragments were purified by gel electrophoresis and used as template for amplification with primers 11 and 14 (Table 1) . With this strategy, a cysteine to serine mutation was made at amino acid 78 of FGF2, the termination codon was removed, a gly-gly-gly-gly-ser linker was added, and NcoI and PstI sites were introduced for subcloning. Sequencing of the FGF2-phage vector indicated that a single base pair error was introduced during assembly, which resulted, however, in a silent mutation.



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Figure 1. Phage vectors for mammalian cell transduction. A) Parent phage with native pIII coat protein. B) FGF2-pIII fusion display phage. Base vector is M13 genome with ampicillin resistance (AmpR) gene and GFP expression cassette inserted into the intergenic region between pIV and pII. ori-CMV, SV40 replication origin and CMV promoter; GFP, green fluorescent protein gene; BGH, bovine growth hormone polyadenylation sequence.

Purification of phage particles and determination of titer
Phage were purified by standard polyethylene glycol (PEG) precipitation (1) . Briefly, ~20 ampicillin-resistant colonies of phage infected Top10F' host bacteria (Invitrogen) were seeded into one liter of LB media containing 100 µg/ml ampicillin and grown for 16 h at 37°C with shaking. Bacteria were removed by centrifugation (20 min at 11,800 g) and supernatant was transferred to fresh bottles. AEBSF (4-(2-aminoethyl)-benzene sulfonyl fluoride) was added to a final concentration of 0.2 mM. Phage particles were precipitated by addition of 1/6th volume of 30% PEG 8000 in 1.5M NaCl, incubation at 4°C for 2 h, and centrifugation (30 min at 11,800 g). The pellet was resuspended in 30 ml of PBS containing 0.2 mM AEBSF at 4°C for 30 min with occasional vortexing. Residual bacteria were removed by centrifugation (20 min at 26,000 g) and supernatant transferred to fresh tubes. Phage particles were again precipitated by addition of 1/6th volume of 30% PEG 8000 in 1.5M NaCl, incubation at 4°C for 30 min, and centrifugation (30 min at 26,000 g). The final phage pellet was resuspended in 10 ml PBS containing 0.2 mM AEBSF, titered, and stored at 4°C.

For CsCl purified phage, 4 g of CsCl were added to 2 ml of phage in PBS and 6 ml TE (10 mM Tris pH 8.0, 1 mM EDTA). After 16 h of centrifugation at 211,000 g at 15°C, the upper translucent band was removed from the top with a 18 g needle and 1 ml syringe. Phage were dialyzed against PBS overnight at 4°C and titered in XL-1Blue MRF' host cells (Stratagene) using standard protocols (1) . The smaller plaques generated by the FGF2 display phage were counted to determine titer for mammalian cell transduction assays. Some preparations contained large revertant plaques that resulted from phage containing deletions of all or part of the FGF2 gene. Only preparations containing >95% small plaques were used.

Analysis of FGF2 expression on display phage
CsCl purified phage were boiled in 1x Tris-glycine-sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) sample buffer (Novex, San Diego, Calif.) containing 5% 2-mercaptoethanol for 3 min prior to loading on 8% polyacrylamide Tris-glycine gels (Novex) for immunoblot analysis. After separation, proteins were transferred to pure nitrocellulose filters (0.2 µM pore) (Bio-Rad, Richmond, Calif.) in 96 mM glycine, 12 mM Tris Base, 0.01% SDS and 20% methanol. The filter was blocked in 1% bovine serum albumin (BSA) in PBST (phosphate-buffered saline with 0.05% Tween 20) for 1 h at RT and probed with mouse anti-FGF2 antibody (Transduction Laboratories, Lexington, Ky.) at a 1:500 dilution, or mouse anti-pIII antibody (MoBiTec, Gottingen, Germany) at a 1:1000 dilution, in 1% BSA in PBST for 1 h at room temperature. After five 5 min washes with PBST, filters were incubated with biotinylated donkey anti-mouse antibody (Jackson Immunoresearch, West Grove, Pa.) at a 1:5000 dilution in 1% BSA in PBST for 1 h. After five 5 min washes with PBST, filters were incubated with a horseradish peroxidase (HRP) streptavidin conjugate (Amersham Life Sciences, Arlington Heights, Ill.) at a 1:20,000 dilution in 1% BSA in PBST for 15 min. Filters were washed five times for 5 min with PBST and developed with chemiluminescent substrates, SuperSignal or SuperSignal ULTRA (Pierce Chemical, Rockford, Ill.), for 1 min, then exposed to film.

A sandwich enzyme-linked immunoassay (ELISA) was used to detect immunologically reactive FGF2 on recombinant phage. Rabbit anti-fd phage antisera and mouse anti-FGF2 antibody (#B1786 and #F3393, respectively; Sigma, St. Louis, Mo.) in 0.1 M carbonate/bicarbonate buffer (pH 9.6) were adsorbed onto 96-well plates overnight. Wells were washed three times with PBST, blocked with Superblock (Pierce Chemical) for 3 h, and washed three times with PBST prior to addition of phage dilutions (50 µl/well). Phage were incubated overnight at 4°C, washed eight times with PBST, and incubated with HRP-conjugated anti-M13 antibody (Pharmacia Biotech, Piscataway, N.J.) at a 1:5000 dilution for 1 h. After five washings with PBST, signal was developed with 50 µl/well o-phenylenediamine dihydrochloride substrate (Sigma) for ~5 min. All incubations were done at room temperature. Reactions were stopped with 20 µl 3M HCl, optical density (OD) was read at 490 nm, and data were analyzed with SoftMax Pro software (Molecular Devices, Sunnyvale, Calif.).

Phage transfection and detection of reporter gene
The ability of FGF2 displaying phage particles to transduce cells was evaluated using the COS-1 cell line (ATCC, Rockville, Md.) that was grown in Dulbecco's modified Eagle's medium (DMEM) containing 10% FCS, 2 mM L-glutamine, pyruvate, and nonessential amino acids. The COS-1 cell line is a derivative of CV-1 monkey kidney cells and carries a single copy of the SV40 T-antigen, which permits high copy replication of DNAs that contain an SV40 origin of replication. Cells were transferred into six-well plates at densities of 40,000 cells 24 h prior to phage particle addition. The phage were added at 1011 pfu/ml and incubated with the cells (~75,000/well) for 4 h at 37°C in DMEM containing 2% BSA (bovine serum albumin) as a blocking agent. In some instances, free FGF2 was added to a final concentration of 2 µg/ml or blocking phage were added at a 100-fold excess at the time of phage addition. The blocking phage particles (ß-gal phage) do not display FGF2 or contain a GFP gene. They were prepared from pRC-CMVß phagemid-transformed host bacteria by rescue with M13 helper phage as described previously (16) . After washing to remove unbound phage, the cells were returned to the incubator for an additional 72 h.

Nongenetic phage targeting was performed by assembling a phage-FGF2 receptor complex at the cell surface as described previously (16) . Briefly, the cells were washed twice with ice-cold PBS/FBS (PBS with 2% fetal bovine serum), followed by the sequential addition of biotinylated FGF2, neutravidin (Pierce Chemical), and biotinylated anti-M13 antibody on ice for 15 min each, with a cell wash in between each step. Fifteen minutes after adding biotinylated anti-M13 antibody, the cells were washed and phage was added in PBS/FBS to form a complex at the cell surface. After 1 h on ice, the cells were washed, put into fresh culture media and returned to the incubator at 37°C to permit internalization. GFP expression was measured 72 h later.

Transduction was measured by counting all of the GFP-positive autofluorescent cells in each well. Transfections were done in triplicate and performed at least twice. The cells were washed twice in PBS/FBS and 1 ml of Dulbecco's PBS was added to each well. Fluorescent cells were detected directly in the culture plates using an epifluorescent inverted microscope (Nikon Diaphot) equipped with a fluorescein isothiocyanate filter set.


   RESULTS
TOP
ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION
MATERIALS AND METHODS
RESULTS
DISCUSSION
REFERENCES
 
Construction of MG3-phage
We modified the M13 phage vector for transduction of COS-1 cells by inserting a CMV-driven GFP reporter gene into the intergenic region of the phage genome to construct the MG3 vector (Fig. 1A ). This GFP expression cassette included an origin of replication from SV40 to ensure high copy number replication in SV40 T-antigen-containing cells. COS-1 cells were transfected with double-stranded phage DNA by CaPO4 coprecipitation to confirm that the GFP expression cassette was functional (not shown).

Display of FGF2 on MG3-phage
Although our strategy for expressing FGF2 on the surface of filamentous phage was similar to one used to display IL-3 (5) , it was unclear how the inclusion of the CMV-GFP expression cassette would affect display. DNA encoding FGF2 was fused 5' to DNA encoding the full-length minor coat protein pIII, so that three to five copies of targeting ligand fused at the amino terminus of the coat protein were expected to be displayed per phage (Fig. 1B ). Because earlier attempts to display FGF2 (C96S) were less successful, we used an FGF2 gene derivative that contained two mutations, resulting in the conversion of the two free surface cysteines to serines to reduce the probability of misfolding and aggregation. The (C96S,C78S) mutant of FGF2 has previously been produced in bacteria and shown to have equivalent biological activity as recombinant wild-type FGF2 (20) . Recombinant phage were identified by the smaller plaque size, probably caused by the foreign pIII extension reducing phage productivity.

The FGF2-pIII fusion was detected on phage particles by immunoblot analysis of FGF2-phage. An immunoblotted fusion protein of ~85 kDa was detected in the lane loaded with an extract of 1010 FGF2-phage but not in the lane containing an equivalent amount of parent phage (lanes a and b, Fig. 2 ). This immunoreactive protein migrates at the predicted combined molecular mass of FGF2 (~18kDa) and pIII (migrates anomalously at 65–70 kDa). When an identical blot was prepared in parallel and probed with an anti-pIII antibody, a protein band corresponding to native pIII was seen in both FGF2-phage and in the parent MG3-phage extracts (lanes c and d, Fig. 2 ). An additional higher molecular mass but less abundant protein migrating at the expected molecular mass of the FGF2-pIII fusion protein was detected only in the extracts from FGF2-phage (lane c). The smaller immunoreactive pIII protein in the FGF2-phage lane was not detected by anti-FGF2 antibody and migrated slightly faster than the MG3-phage encoded pIII, indicating that it was probably the result of cleavage within the amino terminus of pIII. These data suggest that both truncated pIII and FGF2-pIII fusion protein were present on the FGF2-phage particles. We estimated from a dilution series on additional immunoblots (not shown) that the abundance of the fusion coat protein was ~1/50th of the free pIII protein. If 3–5 pIII molecules are present on each phage, then 6–10% of phage would display FGF2.



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Figure 2. Detection of FGF2-pIII fusion protein in protein extracts from purified FGF2-phage by immunoblotting. Extracts from equivalent phage titers of purified FGF2 phage (lanes a and c) and MG3 control phage (lanes b and d) were separated by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and blotted onto nitrocellulose. Phage immunoblots were probed with anti-FGF2 antibody (lanes a and b), or anti-pIII antibody (lanes c and d).

We also assessed the presence of FGF2 on the phage coat by sandwich ELISA. There was a significant increase in FGF2-phage retained on the ELISA plate by FGF2 antibody compared with the MG3 parent phage (Fig. 3 A). There was little difference in the amount of either phage retained on the ELISA plate by anti-M13 antibody (Fig. 3B ).



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Figure 3. Detection of FGF2 on FGF2-phage by ELISA. Phage were captured with anti-FGF2 antiserum (A) or anti-fd phage antiserum (B) bound to the plate well. An HRP-conjugated anti-M13 antibody was used to detect the bound phage. An increased OD indicated the presence of FGF2 on FGF2-phage when phage were captured with anti-FGF2 antiserum. When anti-phage antibody was used to capture the phage, an equivalent OD was observed for both control MG3 phage and FGF2-phage, indicating that equivalent phage particles are applied to the plate.

Transduction of COS-1 cells with FGF2-phage
FGF2 display phage and MG3 control phage were compared for their ability to transduce COS-1 cells. Transfection with the FGF2-phage resulted in about a 10-fold greater transduction efficiency than the control phage (Fig. 4 A). These findings indicate that the FGF2 ligand on the surface of the phage particles results in FGF2-dependent binding and internalization of phage because expression of the phage DNA encoded GFP requires nuclear transport, transcription, and translation in the target cell. The specificity of the FGF2-phage-mediated transduction for the FGF receptor complex was demonstrated by successful inhibition of transduction by these phage in the presence of an excess of free FGF2 (Fig. 4A ). Competition with FGF2 had no effect on nonspecific transduction by MG3 control phage.



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Figure 4. Transduction of COS-1 cells by FGF2-phage as measured by GFP expression. A) Specific transduction of COS-1 cells by FGF2-phage is inhibited in the presence of excess free FGF2 (2 µg/ml). B) A 100-fold excess of blocking phage (ß-gal-phage), containing no GFP, inhibits MG3 control phage transduction but not FGF2-phage transduction. C) FGF2-phage and control phage have equivalent transduction efficiency when targeted noncovalently with avidin-biotin linked FGF2.

We further demonstrated the specificity of the targeting pathway of FGF2-phage by adding an excess of phage particles with no GFP gene and no targeting ligand to the incubation media. These `blocking phage' were expected to interfere with any nonspecific uptake of GFP containing phage, thus reducing the transduction efficiency of untargeted phage. As anticipated, transduction of cells by MG3 control phage was significantly inhibited by a 100-fold excess of blocking phage. Moreover, the presence of excess blocking phage did not inhibit FGF2 targeting and, if anything, slightly increased FGF2-phage transduction (Fig. 4B ).

It was also important to rule out the possibility that the increased transduction efficiency of FGF2-phage was due to structural differences in the phage particles themselves or, alternatively, to differences in the amount of transduction competent particles in the phage preparation. To investigate this possibility, we compared the transduction ability of FGF2-phage and MG3 control phage by nongenetically targeting both phages. Equivalent titers of each phage were used to transfect COS-1 cells using avidin-biotin FGF2 targeting (16) , and there was no significant difference in transduction between FGF2-phage and control phage (Fig. 4C ). Thus, both FGF2-phage and MG3 control phage preparations have the same capacity to transduce COS-1 cells, once appropriately targeted.


   DISCUSSION
TOP
ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION
MATERIALS AND METHODS
RESULTS
DISCUSSION
REFERENCES
 
Because of their inherent simplicity, the use of bacteriophage for gene delivery to mammalian cells is an attractive concept. Indeed, attempts to transduce mammalian cells with bacteriophage particles began as early as 25 years ago, but with little success (21) . Later studies successfully used chemical methods to transduce mammalian cells with both single-stranded filamentous phage 22, 23) and double-stranded {lambda} phage 24, 25) , but there was no attempt to target the phage particles in these experiments. Recently, filamentous phage have been targeted to the cell surface and shown to be internalized with RGD peptides (26) or selected random peptides (9) . Mammalian cell transfection has been reported with an RGD tail tube modified {lambda} phage (27) , however, this was achieved by growing cells directly on RGD-phage that had been adsorbed to the culture dish. We show here that filamentous phage containing a CMV-driven GFP gene and genetically displaying the growth factor ligand, FGF2, can transduce COS-1 cells in an FGF2-specific manner. To our knowledge, this is the first report to demonstrate mammalian cell gene transfer by genetically targeted filamentous phage. These data are consistent with and extend our previous results demonstrating that filamentous phage that normally have no tropism for mammalian cells can be adapted for cell-specific mammalian cell transduction when appropriately targeted.

Consistent with previous reports describing the functional display of various small peptide cytokines and growth factors as pIII fusion proteins on the surface of M13 phage 2-8) , we found that FGF2 can be displayed on the phage surface as a pIII fusion. Early attempts to express FGF2 fused to the pIII or pVIII coat protein in other vector systems designed to include expression of both fusion protein and native pIII coat protein (1) resulted in only native pIII and no detectable FGF2 fusion protein by immunoblot analysis (data not shown). We therefore attempted expression of an FGF2-pIII fusion onto the phage coat by expressing it in the phage vector described here, which contains only the FGF2-fused copy of the pIII gene. Even in this system, the FGF2-pIII fusion represented only ~2–3% of the total pIII protein present on phage particles, indicating low but detectable expression of FGF2-pIII. Together, these data suggest that there is strong selective pressure against bacterial expression of the FGF2 fusion in the periplasm where phage assembly occurs, thus resulting in more of the free pIII protein on the phage particle. The free pIII presumably is the result of proteolytic cleavage of the FGF2 fusion protein.

The significant albeit low transduction efficiency obtained with FGF2-phage could be explained by the expression of a single FGF2 on 6–10% of phage particles, which is similar to what is obtained for other ligands with vectors designed for monovalent phage display (1) . Since heparin-induced FGF2 dimerization is thought to activate FGF2 (28) , this process, and therefore biological activity, might be increased by multivalent display. Sequences in the phage vector itself could also contribute to the lower transduction efficiency. Noncovalent FGF2 targeting in the present study resulted in about a 12-fold lower transduction efficiency than expected from our previous results with a smaller phagemid vector system (16) . Therefore, we expect that more efficient ligand expression on the phage surface and further modifications of the vector will improve transduction efficiency. This increased efficiency could potentially exceed that which we have previously reported for nongenetic targeting [~1%, (16) ].

Our ELISA data showed binding of a neutralizing anti-FGF2 antibody to the displayed FGF2, suggesting that the FGF2 on the phage surface is properly folded and therefore active. This notion is further supported by the observation that significant transduction of COS-1 cells with FGF2-phage was obtained relative to the parent phage, MG3. Moreover, the FGF2-phage-mediated transduction was specific for FGF receptors, as shown by the substantial inhibition of transduction in the presence of excess free FGF2. The low level of nonspecific transduction by the control MG3 phage was not affected by the presence of excess FGF2, suggesting that simple adhesion to the cell surface and subsequent internalization were not mediated by FGF receptors. However, the presence of a 100-fold excess of nontransducing phage particles significantly inhibited this nonspecific transduction but not the specific FGF2-phage transduction, providing further evidence of specificity. These data indicate that FGF2 display phage can transduce mammalian cells, that the transduction is specifically mediated by the displayed ligand, and that FGF2-phage were internalized by a distinct pathway from the untargeted phage.

Our results extend the proposal that peptide display phage might themselves be used as gene delivery vehicles 9, 16) . Indeed, in many ways, bacteriophage fit the description of the ideal gene therapy vector (11) . Though immunogenic, like animal viral vectors, phage might be safer because they are much less likely to generate a replication-competent virus in animal cells. Phage would also be less likely to infect nontargeted tissues because of their natural lack of tropism for eukaryotic cells. Thus, the targeted phage particles resemble synthetic DNA conjugates that can be biologically produced. The results described here suggest that development of an improved gene delivery vehicle could be achieved by further modification and selection of genetically altered phage, resulting in safe and efficient gene transfer into mammalian target cells.

Having demonstrated transduction by phage genetically displaying a known gene targeting ligand, it should be possible to apply selective phage transduction and the power of combinatorial phage libraries to the discovery of new gene targeting ligands. Current phage display methods for identifying cell- or organ-specific targeting ligands select only for phage binding and/or internalization 9, 10) and require recovery of infective phage. Noninfective phage that are, for example, uncoated and trafficked to the nucleus for expression, would be missed by existing screening methods. Therefore, selection of ligand targeted phage using phage internalization and subsequent expression of a selectable reporter gene could directly identify novel ligands capable of both cell-specific internalization and trafficking required for gene delivery. We anticipate that the discovery of such ligands will greatly improve the efficacy of existing gene therapy vectors.


   ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
 
The authors thank Ana Maria Gonzalez, Wendy Johnson, Bob Shopes, and Barbara Sosnowski for their input and insightful discussions regarding this work, and Anne Larocca for critical review of the manuscript. We also thank Ed Cohen for technical assistance.


   FOOTNOTES
 
* Correspondence: Selective Genetics Inc., 11035 Roselle St., San Diego, CA 92121, USA. E-mail: laroccad{at}selectivegenetics.com

1 Abbreviations: AEBSF, 4-(2-aminoethyl)-benzene sulfonyl fluoride; BGH, bovine growth hormone; BSA, bovine serum albumin; DMEM, Dulbecco's modified Eagle's medium; ELISA, enzyme-linked immunoassay; FBS, fetal bovine serum; FGF2, fibroblast growth factor; GFP, green fluorescent protein; HRP, horseradish peroxidase; OD, optical density; PBST, phosphate-buffered saline with 0.05% Tween 20; PEG, polyethylene glycol; SDS, sodium dodecyl sulfate; SOE-PCR, splice overlap extension-polymerase chain reaction.

Received for publication November 9, 1998. Revision received February 5, 1999.
   REFERENCES
TOP
ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION
MATERIALS AND METHODS
RESULTS
DISCUSSION
REFERENCES
 

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