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Recombinant adeno-associated virus-mediated kallikrein gene therapy reduces hypertension and attenuates its cardiovascular injuries

Gene Therapy volume 11, pages 1342–1350 (2004)Cite this article

Abstract

Gene therapy of hypertension requires long-term expression of a therapeutic gene to achieve stable reduction of blood pressure. Human tissue kallikrein (HK) cleaves kininogen to produce a potent vasoactive peptide kinin, which plays an important role in the regulation of the cardiovascular and renal functions. In the present study, we have delivered human kallikrein cDNA with an rAAV vector to explore the potential therapeutic effects of kallikrein on hypertension and related secondary complications. A single tail vein injection of the rAAV-HK vector into the adult spontaneously hypertensive rats resulted in a significant reduction (12.0±2.55 mmHg, P<0.05, n=6, ANOVA) of the systolic blood pressure from 2 weeks after vector injection, when compared with the control rAAV-lacZ vector-injected rats. Weekly blood pressure monitoring showed stable hypertension-reduction effect throughout the course of the 20-week experiments. In addition, total urine microalbumin contents decreased as a result of rAAV-HK treatment. Histological analysis of various tissues showed remarkable amelioration of cardiovascular hypertrophy, renal injury and collagen depositions in the rAAV-treated group. Finally, persistent expression of the transgene product HK was confirmed by the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction. We conclude that rAAV-mediated HK delivery rendered a long-term and stable reduction of hypertension and protected against renal injury, cardiac remodeling in the spontaneously hypertensive rat model. Further studies are warranted for the development of a gene therapy strategy for human hypertension.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National ‘863’ Plan project of China (No. 2001AA217121) and International Collaboration Grant of Wuhan City (No. 997005135G).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Internal Medicine and Gene Therapy Center, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College of Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, People's Republic of China

    T Wang, H Li, C Zhao, C Chen, X Xiao & D W Wang

  2. Departments of Molecular Genetics and Biochemistry & Orthopedic Surgery, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

    J Li & X Xiao

  3. Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC, USA

    J Chao & L Chao

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  1. T Wang
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  2. H Li
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Wang, T., Li, H., Zhao, C. et al. Recombinant adeno-associated virus-mediated kallikrein gene therapy reduces hypertension and attenuates its cardiovascular injuries. Gene Ther 11, 1342–1350 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.gt.3302294

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