Gene transduction efficiency in cells of different species by HIV and EIAV vectors

The ability of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)- and equine infectious anaemia virus (EIAV)-based vectors to transduce cell lines from a range of species was compared. Both vectors carried the vesicular stomatitis virus G (VSV-G) envelope protein and encoded an enhanced green fluorescent protein (eGFP) gene driven by a human cytomegalovirus (CMV) early promoter. Immunostaining for viral core proteins and VSV-G was used to demonstrate that the HIV and EIAV vector preparations contained similar numbers of virus particles. Various cell lines were transduced with these vectors and the transduction efficiency was estimated by measuring eGFP expression. Efficient transduction by both vectors was observed in human, hamster, pig, horse, cat and dog cell lines, although EIAV vector was about 10-fold less efficient in human, hamster and pig cells normalised to the total number of viral particles. This could be partly explained by the lower RNA genome levels per particle for EIAV as measured by real-time RT-PCR. Rodent cells appeared to be transduced inefficiently with both vectors, but when the CMV promoter was substituted with the EF1alpha promoter in the HIV vectors, the expression level increased leading to an increase in the measurable level of transduction.