Intrapulmonary Versus Nasal Transduction of Murine Airways With GP64-pseudotyped Viral Vectors

Persistent viral vector-mediated transgene expression in the airways requires delivery to cells with progenitor capacity and avoidance of immune responses. Previously, we observed that GP64-pseudotyped feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV)-mediated gene transfer was more efficient in the nasal airways than the large airways of the murine lung. We hypothesized that in vivo gene transfer was limited by immunological and physiological barriers in the murine intrapulmonary airways. Here, we systematically investigate multiple potential barriers to lentiviral gene transfer in the airways of mice. We show that GP64-FIV vector transduced primary cultures of well-differentiated murine nasal epithelia with greater efficiency than primary cultures of murine tracheal epithelia. We further demonstrate that neutrophils, type I interferon (IFN) responses, as well as T and B lymphocytes are not the major factors limiting the transduction of murine conducting airways. In addition, we observed better transduction of GP64-pseudotyped vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) in the nasal epithelia compared with the intrapulmonary airways in mice. VSVG glycoprotein pseudotyped VSV transduced intrapulmonary epithelia with similar efficiency as nasal epithelia. Our results suggest that the differential transduction efficiency of nasal versus intrapulmonary airways by FIV vector is not a result of immunological barriers or surface area, but rather differential expression of cellular factors specific for FIV vector transduction.