Neutralized adenovirus-immune complexes can mediate effective gene transfer via an Fc receptor-dependent infection pathway

Neutralization of adenovirus (Ad) by anti-Ad neutralizing antibodies in serum involves formation of Ad-immune complexes that prevent the virus from interacting with target cells. We hypothesized that Ad-immune complexes likely contain viable Ad vectors which, although no longer capable of gaining access to receptors on target cells, may be able to express transgenes in cells bearing Fe receptors for immunoglobulins, i.e., that antibody-based "neutralization" of Ad vectors may be circumvented by the Fc receptor pathway. To test this hypothesis, we expressed the Fc gamma receptor IIA (Fc gamma R) in A549 lung epithelial cells or human dermal fibroblasts and evaluated gene transfer in the presence of human neutralizing anti-Ad serum. Fc gamma R-expressing cells bound and internalized copious amounts of Ad, with a distinct population of internalized Ad trafficking to the nucleus. The dose-response curves for inhibition of gene transfer revealed that Fc gamma R-expressing cells required a more-than-10-fold higher concentration of anti-Ad serum to achieve 50% inhibition of Ad-encoded beta-galactosidase expression compared with non-Fc gamma R-expressing cells. The discrepancy between neutralization of Ad during infection of Fc gamma R-expressing cells and neutralization of Ad during infection of non-Fc gamma R-expressing cells occurred with either heat-inactivated or non-heat-inactivated sera, was blocked by addition of purified Fc domain protein, and did not require the cytoplasmic domain of Fc gamma R suggesting that immune complex internalization proceeded via endocytosis rather than phagocytosis. Fc gamma R-mediated infection by Ad-immune complexes did not require expression of the coxsackie virus-Ad receptor (CAR) since similar data were obtained when CAR-deficient human dermal fibroblasts were engineered to express Fc gamma R. However, interaction of the Ad penton base with cell surface integrins contributed to the difference in neutralization between Fc gamma R-expressing and non-Fc gamma R-expressing cells. The data indicate that complexes formed from Ad and anti-Ad neutralizing antibodies, while compromised with respect to infection of non-Fc gamma R-expressing target cells, maintain the potential to transfer genes to Fc gamma R-expressing cells, with consequent expression of the transgene. The formation of Ad-immune complexes that can target viable virus to antigen-presenting cells may account for the success of Ad-based vaccines administered in the presence of low levels of neutralizing anti-Ad antibody.