Patent ID: 8298785

Claim:
A method of validating a therapeutic composition comprising reovirus as having no detectable adventitious agent, the method comprising: (a) providing a therapeutic composition in need of validation, the therapeutic composition comprising a reovirus and suspected of further comprising an adventitious agent, wherein the adventitious agent is not a reovirus; (b) providing a population of indicator cells that express a ribozyme, wherein the ribozyme is capable of specifically cleaving the genome of the reovirus; (c) contacting the indicator cells with the therapeutic composition under conditions that allow for cleavage of the genome of the reovirus by the ribozyme; and (d) determining the effect of any adventitious agent in the therapeutic composition by detecting the presence or absence of a pathogenic effect on the indicator cells contacted with the therapeutic composition, wherein the presence of a pathogenic effect indicates the presence of an adventitious agent in the therapeutic composition; and (e) validating the therapeutic composition as having no detectable adventitious agent in the absence of a pathogenic effect.