Structure of adeno-associated virus serotype 8, a gene therapy vector.

Adeno-associated viruses (AAVs) are being developed as gene therapy vectors, and their efficacy could be improved by a detailed understanding of their viral capsid structures. AAV serotype 8 (AAV8) shows a significantly greater liver transduction efficiency than those of other serotypes, which has resulted in efforts to develop this virus as a gene therapy vector for hemophilia A and familial hypercholesterolemia. Pseudotyping studies show that the differential tissue tropism and transduction efficiencies exhibited by the AAVs result from differences in their capsid viral protein (VP) amino acids.

Production, purification, crystallization and preliminary X-ray analysis of adeno-associated virus serotype 8.

Adeno-associated viruses (AAVs) are actively being developed for clinical gene-therapy applications and the efficiencies of the vectors could be significantly improved by a detailed understanding of their viral capsid structures and the structural determinants of their tissue-transduction interactions. AAV8 is approximately 80% identical to the more widely studied AAV2, but its liver-transduction efficiency is significantly greater than that of AAV2 and other serotypes. The production, purification, crystallization and preliminary X-ray crystallographic analysis of AAV8 viral capsids are reported.