AAV Expression and Packaging

Packaging an infective recombinant adeno-associated virus (AAV) requires the presence of certain adenoviral gene products. The AAV Helper Free System eliminates the need for a helper adenovirus, making the system safer and more convenient. Most of the required adenoviral gene products (E2A, E4, and VA RNA) are present in a pHelper plasmid; the E1 adenovirus gene is supplied by the 293 host cell line.

We offer a broad range of AAV Helper Free Systems:

AAV native serotypes 1 through 6
AAV-DJ, engineered by DNA family shuffling to create a hybrid capsid from 8 different native serotypes; AAV-DJ vectors convey significantly higher infectivity rates compared to native serotypes across a broad range of tissue and cell types
AAV-DJ/8, a mutant of AAV-DJ that exhibits increased uptake in brain tissue and other tissues in vivo, similar to native serotypes 8 and 9

Relative in vitro Infectivity¹ of AAV Vectors:

Cell Line	AAV-1	AAV-2	AAV-3	AAV-4	AAV-5	AAV-6	AAV-8	AAV-9	AAV-DJ	AAV-DJ/8
Huh-7	13	100	2.5	0.0	0.1	10	0.7	0.0	500	0.2
HEK293	25	100	2.5	0.1	0.1	5	0.7	0.1	500	0.3
HeLa	3	100	2.0	0.1	6.7	1	0.2	0.1	667	0.2
HepG2	3	100	16.7	0.3	1.7	5	0.3	ND	1250	0.5
Hep1A	20	100	0.2	1.0	0.1	1	0.2	0.0	400	0.1
911	17	100	11	0.2	0.1	17	0.1	ND	500	0.0
CHO	100	100	14	1.4	333	50	10	1.0	25000	5.0
COS	33	100	33	3.3	5.0	14	2.0	0.5	500	0.3
MeWo	10	100	20	0.3	6.7	10	1.0	0.2	2857	1.0
NIH3T3	10	100	2.9	2.9	0.3	10	0.3	ND	500	0.1
A549	14	100	20	ND	0.5	10	0.5	0.1	1000	0.1
HT1180	20	100	10	0.1	0.3	33	0.5	0.1	333	0.2
Monocytes	1111	100	ND	ND	125	1429	ND	ND	100	ND
Immature DC	2500	100	ND	ND	222	2857	ND	ND	200	ND
Mature DC	2222	100	ND	ND	333	3333	ND	ND	100	ND

Note: Infectivity rates normalized to AAV-2 = 100. ND = Not Determined

AAV Helper Free vector technologies are available in the following formats:

AAV Helper Free Expression Complete Systems include packaging vectors, an expression vector, and a GFP control vector
AAV Helper Free Packaging Systems include the two packaging vectors individually (not premixed) plus a GFP control vector. These systems are ideal if you already have an AAV expression vector containing your gene of interest.
AAV Helper Free Expression Vectors and serotype-specific AAV Rep-Cap Plasmids are also available separately.