Colella Pasqualina, Sellier Pauline, Costa Verdera Helena, Puzzo Francesco, van Wittenberghe Laetitia, Guerchet Nicolas, Daniele Nathalie, Gjata Bernard, Marmier Solenne, Charles Severine, Simon Sola Marcelo, Ragone Isabella, Leborgne Christian, Collaud Fanny, Mingozzi Federico
Genethon, INSERM U951 Integrare, University of Evry, Université Paris-Saclay, 91002, Evry, France.
University Pierre and Marie Curie Paris 6 and INSERM U974, 75651, Paris, France.
Mol Ther Methods Clin Dev. 2018 Nov 17;12:85-101. doi: 10.1016/j.omtm.2018.11.002. eCollection 2019 Mar 15.
Hepatocyte-restricted, AAV-mediated gene transfer is being used to provide sustained, tolerogenic transgene expression in gene therapy. However, given the episomal status of the AAV genome, this approach cannot be applied to pediatric disorders when hepatocyte proliferation may result in significant loss of therapeutic efficacy over time. In addition, many multi-systemic diseases require widespread expression of the therapeutic transgene that, when provided with ubiquitous or tissue-specific non-hepatic promoters, often results in anti-transgene immunity. Here we have developed tandem promoter monocistronic expression cassettes that, packaged in a single AAV, provide combined hepatic and extra-hepatic tissue-specific transgene expression and prevent anti-transgene immunity. We validated our approach in infantile Pompe disease, a prototype disease caused by lack of the ubiquitous enzyme acid-alpha-glucosidase (GAA), presenting multi-systemic manifestations and detrimental anti-GAA immunity. We showed that the use of efficient tandem promoters prevents immune responses to GAA following systemic AAV gene transfer in immunocompetent Gaa-/- mice. Then we demonstrated that neonatal gene therapy with either AAV8 or AAV9 in Gaa-/- mice resulted in persistent therapeutic efficacy when using a tandem liver-muscle promoter (LiMP) that provided high and persistent transgene expression in non-dividing extra-hepatic tissues. In conclusion, the tandem promoter design overcomes important limitations of AAV-mediated gene transfer and can be beneficial when treating pediatric conditions requiring persistent multi-systemic transgene expression and prevention of anti-transgene immunity.
肝细胞特异性的腺相关病毒(AAV)介导的基因转移正被用于在基因治疗中提供持续的、致耐受性的转基因表达。然而,鉴于AAV基因组的游离状态,当肝细胞增殖可能导致治疗效果随时间显著丧失时,这种方法不能应用于儿科疾病。此外,许多多系统疾病需要治疗性转基因的广泛表达,当使用普遍存在的或组织特异性的非肝脏启动子时,这通常会导致抗转基因免疫。在此,我们开发了串联启动子单顺反子表达盒,其包装在单个AAV中,可提供肝脏和肝外组织特异性转基因的联合表达,并防止抗转基因免疫。我们在婴儿庞贝病中验证了我们的方法,这是一种由普遍存在的酸性α-葡萄糖苷酶(GAA)缺乏引起的典型疾病,表现出多系统表现和有害的抗GAA免疫。我们表明,在具有免疫活性的Gaa-/-小鼠中,使用高效串联启动子可防止全身AAV基因转移后对GAA的免疫反应。然后我们证明,在Gaa-/-小鼠中,当使用串联肝-肌肉启动子(LiMP)时,用AAV8或AAV9进行新生儿基因治疗可产生持续的治疗效果,该启动子在非分裂的肝外组织中提供高且持续的转基因表达。总之,串联启动子设计克服了AAV介导的基因转移的重要局限性,在治疗需要持续多系统转基因表达和预防抗转基因免疫的儿科疾病时可能有益。