1. ¹Institute of Molecular Biology, University of Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland
2. ²Department of Dermatology, University of Zürich Medical School, Zürich, Switzerland
3. ³Institute of Zoology, University of Zürich, Zürich Switzerland

Correspondence: Dr S Hemmi, Institute of Molecular Biology, University of Zürich, Winterthrustr. 190, CH-8057 Zürich, Switzerland

^*The first two authors contributed equally

Received 25 January 2003; Accepted 9 March 2003.

Abstract

Epithelial and endothelial cells expressing the primary Coxsackie virus B adenovirus (Ad) receptor (CAR) and integrin coreceptors are natural targets of human Ad infections. The fiber knob of species A, C, D, E and F Ad serotypes binds CAR by mimicking the CAR–homodimer interface, and the penton base containing arginine–glycine–aspartate (RGD) motifs binds with low affinity to v integrins inducing cell activation. Here, we generated seven different genetically modified Ad vectors with RGD sequences inserted into the HI loop of fiber knob. All mutants bound and infected CAR and v integrin-positive epithelial cells with equal efficiencies. However, the Ads containing two additional cysteines, both N and C terminals of the RGD sequence (RGD-4C), were uniquely capable of transducing CAR-less hematopoietic and nonhematopoietic human tumor cell lines and primary melanoma cells. Both binding and transduction of RGD-4C Ad were blocked by soluble RGD peptides. Flow cytometry of cell surface integrins and virus binding to CAR-less cells in the presence of function-blocking anti-integrin antibodies indicated that the v5 integrin, but not v3, IIb3 or 1,5 or 6-containing integrins served as a functional transduction receptor of the RGD-4C Ads. However, in cells with low levels of v5 integrin, the function-blocking anti-v5 antibodies were not effective, unlike soluble RGD peptides. Collectively, our data demonstrate that the v5 integrin is a functional transduction receptor of RGD-4C Ads in the absence of CAR, and that additional RGD receptors are targets of these viruses. The RGD-4C vectors further extend the tropism of Ads towards potential human therapies.