Production of the Human β-Interferon Recombinant Protein in Avian Cell Culture

An avian recombinant adenovirus serotype 1 (CELO) expressing human beta-interferon (IB) was obtained. An expression cassette containing the IB gene was placed at the right end of the CELO genome under the ontrol of hybrid promoter hEF-1/HTLV. The resulting recombinant adenovirus CELO-IB transduced the avian cell culture LMH. The level of production of recombinant IB was 0.15 mu g/ml. The IB protein yield after affine chromatography purification using Ni-NTA agarose was 50%. The biological activity of the purified IB was fairly high (7.8 x 10(8) per mu g of protein). The purified IB inhibited replication of murine encephalomyocarditis virus (VMEC)in cell culture of human diploid fibroblasts (HDF). Thus, the expression system based on the avian cell culture is an effective system for producing biologically active protein of human interferon beta.