Cell persistence
Persistence of transduced T cells in PBMCs after infusion was measured using quantitative PCR (qPCR) specific for the packaging signal sequence present in the vector genome. This sequence, absent from the human genome, is integrated in the genome of the transduced host T cell and, thus, acts as a genetic marker specific for transduced cells. Persistence is expressed as the number of vector copies per microgram of genomic DNA from PBMCs.