Improving Lentiviral Transduction of CD34⁺ Hematopoietic Stem and Progenitor Cells

The delivery of therapeutic genes for treatment of inherited or infectious diseases frequently requires lentiviral transduction of CD34⁺ hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSC). Optimized transduction protocols with a therapeutic goal aim to maximize the number of transduction-positive cells while limiting the vector copy number that reach each individual cell. Importantly, the transduced HSC should maintain their "stem-like" properties. Here, we analyzed LentiBOOST™ reagent, a membrane-sealing poloxamer, with respect to enhancing lentiviral transduction of CD34⁺ peripheral blood stem cells. We demonstrate that inclusion of LentiBOOST™ in a standard HSC transduction protocol yields high transduction efficiencies while preserving the ability of the transduced HSC to differentiate into various hematopoietic lineages. Thus, LentiBOOST™ reagent can significantly improve lentiviral CD34⁺ HSC transduction protocols with the potential to improve production of gene-modified cell products.