Effective cell and gene therapy in a murine model of Gaucher disease

doi:10.1073/pnas.0606016103

Effective cell and gene therapy in a murine model of Gaucher disease

*Department of Molecular Medicine and Gene Therapy, Institute of Laboratory Medicine, and Lund Strategic Research Center for Stem Cell Biology and Cell Therapy, Lund University, BMC A12, 221 84 Lund, Sweden;
^‡Institute of Clinical Neuroscience, Sahlgrenska University Hospital, 431 80 Mölndal, Sweden;
^§Department of Pathology, Lund University Hospital, S-221 00 Lund, Sweden; and
^¶Developmental and Metabolic Neurology Branch, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892-1260

Contributed by Roscoe O. Brady, July 18, 2006
↵ ^†I.B.E., E.N., and A.O. contributed equally to this work.

Abstract

Gaucher disease (GD) is a lysosomal storage disorder due to an inherited deficiency in the enzyme glucosylceramidase (GCase) that causes hepatosplenomegaly, cytopenias, and bone disease as key clinical symptoms. Previous mouse models with GCase deficiency have been lethal in the perinatal period or viable without displaying the clinical features of GD. We have generated viable mice with characteristic clinical symptoms of type 1 GD by conditionally deleting GCase exons 9–11 upon postnatal induction. Both transplantation of WT bone marrow (BM) and gene therapy through retroviral transduction of BM from GD mice prevented development of disease and corrected an already established GD phenotype. The gene therapy approach generated considerably higher GCase activity than transplantation of WT BM. Strikingly, both therapeutic modalities normalized glucosylceramide levels and practically no infiltration of Gaucher cells could be observed in BM, spleen, and liver, demonstrating correction at 5–6 months after treatment. The findings demonstrate the feasibility of gene therapy for type 1 GD in vivo. Our type 1 GD mice will serve as an excellent tool in the continued efforts toward development of safe and efficient cell and gene therapy for type 1 GD.

Footnotes

^‖To whom correspondence may be addressed. E-mail: stefan.karlsson{at}med.lu.se or bradyr{at}ninds.nih.gov
Author contributions: I.B.E., E.N., A.O., and S.K. designed research; I.B.E., E.N., A.O., and K.O. performed research; E.N., A.O., J.-E.M., and K.O. contributed new reagents/analytic tools; I.B.E., E.N., J.-E.M., M.E., R.O.B., J.R., and S.K. analyzed data; and I.B.E., R.O.B., and S.K. wrote the paper.
Conflict of interest statement: No conflicts declared.
Abbreviations:

BM,

bone marrow;

BMT,

BM transplantation;

HSC,

hematopoietic stem cell;

GCase,

glucosylceramidase;

GluCer,

glucosylceramide;

GD,

Gaucher disease;

VCM,

virus-containing medium.