Patent ID: 7291498

Claim:
A method of producing a chimeric adenovirus in a selected host cell type, said chimeric adenovirus derived from a parental adenovirus which is not useful for adenovirus virion production in the host cell type, said method comprising the steps of: (a) generating a chimeric adenovirus comprising: (i) adenovirus sequences of the left terminal end and right terminal end of a first adenovirus which grows in the selected host cell type, said left end region comprising the 5′ inverted terminal repeat (ITRs), and said right end region comprising the 3′ inverted terminal repeat (ITRs); and (ii) the internal regions from the parental adenovirus, said internal regions comprising the late genes encoding the penton, hexon, and fiber and lacking its native 5′ and 3′ terminal regions from the parental adenovirus; wherein the resulting chimeric adenovirus comprises, from 5′ to 3′, a left terminal region of the first adenovirus, the internal region of the parental adenovirus, and the right terminal region of the first adenovirus; and b) producing said chimeric adenovirus in the presence of functional adenovirus E1a, E1b, and E4 ORF6 genes from the first adenovirus or from an adenovirus serotype which transcomplements the first adenovirus, and further in the presence of necessary adenoviral structural genes from the left end of the first adenovirus or from an adenovirus serotype which transcomplements the first adenovirus.