Comparison of the L3-23K and L5-Fiber Regions for Arming the Oncolytic Adenovirus Ad5-Delta-24-RGD with Reporter and Therapeutic Transgenes

The insertion of a transgene downstream of the L3-23K or L5-Fiber region was reported as a vital strategy for arming E3 non-deleted oncolytic adenoviruses. However, depending on the percentage of codons with G/C at the third base position (GC3%) and the type of splicing acceptor, an insert downstream of the L5-Fiber region may substantially affect virus fitness. Since the insertion of transgenes downstream of the L3-23K and L5-Fiber regions has never been compared in terms of their expression levels and impact on virus fitness, we assessed the total virus yield, cytolytic efficacy, and plaque size of Ad5-delta-24-RGD (Ad5Δ24RGD) armed with <i>EGFP</i>, <i>FLuc</i>, the suppressor of RNA silencing <i>p19</i>, soluble wild-type human/mouse and high-affinity human programmed cell death receptor-1 (PD-1/<i>PDCD1</i>) ectodomains, and soluble human hyaluronidase PH20/<i>SPAM1</i>. The insertion of transgenes downstream of the L3-23K region ensures their production at considerably higher levels. However, the insertion of transgenes downstream of either region differentially and unpredictably affects the oncolytic potency of Ad5Δ24RGD, which cannot be explained by GC3% or expression level alone. Surprisingly, the expression of the human and mouse PD-1 ectodomains with 83.1% and 70.1% GC3%, respectively, does not affect cytolytic efficacy but increases the plaque size in a cell line-dependent manner.