The effect of surface demineralization of cortical bone allograft on the properties of recombinant adeno-associated virus coatings

Freeze-dried recombinant adeno-associated virus (rAAV) coated structural allografts have emerged as an approach to engender necrotic cortical bone with host factors that will persist for weeks following surgery to facilitate revascularization, osteointegration, and remodeling. However, one major limitation is the nonporous cortical surface that prohibits uniform distribution of the rAAV coating prior to freeze-drying. To overcome this we have developed a demineralization method to increase surface absorbance while retaining the structural integrity of the allograft. Demineralized bone wafers (DBW) made from human femoral allograft rings demonstrated a significant 21.1% (73.6 ± 3.9% versus 52.5 ± 2.6%; p < 0.001) increase in percent surface area coating versus mineralized controls. Co-incubation of rAAV-luciferase (rAAV-Luc) coated DBW with a monolayer of C3H10T1/2 cells in culture led to peak luciferase levels that were not significantly different from soluble rAAV-Luc controls (p > 0.05), although the peaks occurred at 60 h and 12 h, respectively. To assess the transduction efficiency of rAAV-Luc coated DBW in vivo, we first performed a dose response with allografts containing 107, 109 or 1010 particles that were surgically implanted into the quadriceps of mice, and assayed by in vivo bioluminescence imaging (BLI) on days 1, 3, 5, 7, 10, 14, and 21. The results demonstrated a dose response in which the DBW coated with 1010 rAAV-Luc particles achieved peak gene expression levels on day 3, which persisted until day 21, and was significantly greater than the 107 dose throughout this time period (p < 0.01). A direct comparison of mineralized versus DBW coated with 1010 rAAV-Luc particles failed to demonstrate any significant differences in transduction kinetics or efficiency in vivo. Thus, surface demineralization of human cortical bone allograft increases its absorbance for uniform rAAV coating, without affecting vector transduction efficiency.