OneBac 2.0: Sf9 Cell Lines for Production of AAV1, AAV2, and AAV8 Vectors with Minimal Encapsidation of Foreign DNA

Recombinant adeno-associated viral (rAAV) vectors for human gene therapy require efficient and economical production methods to keep pace with the rapidly increasing clinical demand. In addition, the manufacturing process must ensure high vector quality and biological safety. The OneBac system offers easily scalable rAAV vector production in insect Sf9-derived AAV rep/cap-expressing producer cell lines infected with a single baculovirus that carries the rAAV backbone. For most AAV serotypes high burst sizes per cell were achieved, combined with high infectivity rates. OneBac 2.0 represents a 2-fold advancement: First, enhanced VP1 proportions in AAV5 capsids lead to vastly increased per-particle infectivity rates. Second, collateral packaging of foreign DNA is suppressed by removal of the Rep-binding element (RBE). In this study we show that this advancement of AAV5 packaging can be translated to OneBac 2.0-derived packaging systems for alternative AAV serotypes. By removal of the RBE, collateral packaging of nonvector DNA was drastically reduced in all newly tested serotypes (AAV1, AAV2, and AAV8). However, the splicing-based strategy to enhance VP1 expression in order to increase AAV5 infectivity hardly improved infectivity rates of AAV-1, -2, or -8 compared with the original OneBac cell lines. Our results emphasize that OneBac 2.0 represents an advancement for scalable, high-titer production of various AAV serotypes, leading to AAV particles with minimal packaging of foreign DNA.