The BAP (Biotinylation Acceptor Peptide) that we included in our Virus Construction Kit is a 15 amino acid long peptide identified by Schatz J., 1993 in an library screening approach and published under the number #85. This peptide with the sequence 5' - GLNDIFEAQKIEWHE - 3' contains a central lysine that is specifically biotinylated by the prokaryotic enzyme biotin holenzyme synthetase, encoded in the BirA gene of E. coli. Specific biotinylation of this peptide sequence can be performed in vivo by contransfecting a plasmid with the BirA gene as described for the AAV in Arnold et al.; 2006 or by an in vitro coupling approach using the purified Escherichia coli enzyme biotin ligase (BirA).
The purified BirA biotin ligase that was kindly provided from Avidity.com

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Protein tagging via Histidine Tags is a widely used method for protein purification: Multiple histidine residues (most commonly: Six) are being fused tot he end of the targeting protein.
The high binding affinity of Histidine towards metal is being exploited for the purification of proteins via the so called „Immobilized Metal Ion Affinity Chromatography“ (IMAC): Multiple histidine residues (most commonly: Six) are being fused to the end of the targeting protein. A cell extract containing the recombinant protein ist then applied to a collumn containing immobilized Ni2+-Ions. The His-tags covalently bind the Ni-Ions while other cellular proteins can be washed oft he collumn. The purified proteins can then be eluted with Imidazol, which displaces the histidine residues.(Smith et al. 1988), (Hoffmann & Roeder 1991)
Since the aim behind engineering therapeutic AAV vectors is a safe administration to human patients, it is important to consider a convenient way of purifying the virus particles. Contamination by cellular proteins could cause toxic side effects or a strong immune response. Koerber et al. have first inserted a His-tag into a surface-exposed loop at amino acid position 587 in the Cap protein and successfully purified recombinant virsuses using IMAC (Koerber et al. 2007). For our Virus Construction Kit, we provide the His-tag motif in the ViralBrick standard, allowing for an easy insertion into the 453 and/or 587 loop. If the modified capsid bearing a His-tag is being cotransfected with a wild type capsid for the production of mosaic viruses, IMAC helps to not only purify the produced viral particles but also to enrich particles which actually contain the modified proteins.

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The idea of this targeting approach is to utilise a minimized fragment of the Staphylococcal Protein A that was first described in Staphylococcus aureus. This gram-positive bacteria has evolved the 508 amino acid long protein A that has a high affinity for the Fc-domain of antibodies to protect itself from the immune systeme. Binding to the constant region of the antibodies is accomplished by the Z-Domain of Protein A that is 58-59 amino acids long, has alone a high affinity (Kd= 14,9 nM) for the antibodies and a three-helix bundle structure. In [Braisted & Wells; 1996] the authors reduced the secundary structure to an two-helix bundle. This size reduction has lead to an drastic reduction of the affinity for IgG (>10^5 fold) which could be recovered by 13 amino acid exchanges resulting in a 38 amino acid long peptide with an satisfying affinity for IgG (Kd = 185 nM) termed Z38. This binding domain was subsequently improoved in [Starovasnik et al.; 1997] by the insertion of a disulfide bridge connecting the ends of the helices leading to the binding domain Z34C which shows an increased affinity for IgG (Kd = 20 nM).
This engineered antibody binding domain of 34 amino acids was then inserted into capsids of different viral vectors amongst others also the AAV. In [Ried et al.; 2002] the Z34C domain was inserted at position 587 into the capsid of the AAV resulting in viral vector that can be targeted to different target cells without genetic engineering. This targeting approach was then improved in [Gigout et al.; 2005] by the creation of mosaic vectors that contain only ~25% of recombinant VP-Proteins what resulted in 4 to 5 orders of magnitude more infectiosity compared to all-mutant viruses.

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[Braisted & Wells; 1996]

[Starovasnik et al.; 1997]

[Ried et al.; 2002]

[Gigout et al.; 2005]

Viral Systems based on the Adeno-associated Virus of the serotype 2 are to handle under Biosafety level 1 according to the german Act on Genetic Engineering the specification of the ZKBS on working with the AAV. In the United States, the legal regulations are comparable according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) which classifies the AVV-2 as BSL-1 in the Appendix B. This general classification is restricted to experiments that use the ITRs (Inverted Terminal Repeats) of the AAV2 and do not contain hazardous gene sequences on the vector plasmid.
Please consider special provisions of law in your country before using parts that contribute to the production of genetically modified viral vectors.