Encapsidated recombinant poliovirus nucleic acid and methods of making

Abstract

The present invention pertains to a method of encapsidating a recombinant poliovirus nucleic acid to obtain a yield of encapsidated viruses which substantially comprises encapsidated recombinant poliovirus nucleic acid. The method of encapsidating a recombinant poliovirus nucleic acid includes contacting a host cell with a recombinant poliovirus nucleic acid which lacks the nucleotide sequence encoding at least a portion of a protein necessary for encapsidation and an expression vector comprising a nucleic acid which encodes at least a portion of one protein necessary for encapsidation under conditions appropriate for introduction of the recombinant poliovirus nucleic acid and the expression vector into the host cell and obtaining a yield of encapsidated viruses which substantially comprises an encapsidated recombinant poliovirus nucleic acid. A foreign nucleotide sequence is generally substituted for the nucleotide sequence of the poliovirus nucleic acid encoding at least a portion of a protein necessary for encapsidation. The invention further pertains to encapsidated recombinant poliovirus nucleic acids produced by the method of this invention and compositions containing the encapsidated recombinant poliovirus nucleic acid containing a foreign nucleotide sequence for use in a method of stimulating an immune response in a subject to the protein encoded by the foreign nucleotide sequence.