Rational plasmid design and bioprocess optimization to enhance recombinant adeno‐associated virus (AAV) productivity in mammalian cells

Abstract Viral vectors used for gene and oncolytic therapy belong to the most promising biological products for future therapeutics. Clinical success of recombinant adeno‐associated virus (rAAV) based therapies raises considerable demand for viral vectors, which cannot be met by current manufacturing strategies. Addressing existing bottlenecks, we improved a plasmid system termed rep/cap split packaging and designed a minimal plasmid encoding adenoviral helper function. Plasmid modifications led to a 12‐fold increase in rAAV vector titers compared to the widely used pDG standard system. Evaluation of different production approaches revealed superiority of processes based on anchorage‐ and serum‐dependent HEK293T cells, exhibiting about 15‐fold higher specific and volumetric productivity compared to well‐established suspension cells cultivated in serum‐free medium. As for most other viral vectors, classical stirred‐tank bioreactor production is thus still not capable of providing drug product of sufficient amount. We show that manufacturing strategies employing classical surface‐providing culture systems can be successfully transferred to the new fully‐controlled, single‐use bioreactor system Integrity TM iCELLis TM . In summary, we demonstrate substantial bioprocess optimizations leading to more efficient and scalable production processes suggesting a promising way for flexible large‐scale rAAV manufacturing.