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Critical assessment of lifelong phenotype correction in hyperbilirubinemic Gunn rats after retroviral mediated gene transfer

Gene Therapy volume 14, pages 1270–1277 (2007)Cite this article

Abstract

Among inherited diseases of the liver, Crigler–Najjar type 1 disease (CN-1), which results from complete deficiency in bilirubin UDP-glucuronosyltransferase activity (B-UGT1), is an attractive target for gene therapy studies. Hyperbilirubinemic Gunn rats, a model of CN-1, were injected at 2 days of age with lentiviral or oncoretroviral vectors encoding the human B-UGT1. After injection, bilirubinemia was normalized for up to 95 weeks. Bilirubin conjugates were present in the bile, demonstrating liver transduction. PCR and enzyme activity analysis confirmed gene and phenotype correction in liver. We observed that when using a strong viral promoter, a complete correction was achieved with less than 5% of B-UGT1 copy per haploid genome and after a reconstitution of 12% B-UGT1 normal activity. Liver histology remained normal throughout the experiment and tissue distribution analysis revealed preferential hepatocyte transduction after systemic delivery. Finally, no adverse immune response occurred even after induction of nonspecific liver inflammation, suggesting immune ignorance to the therapeutic protein. Our present results document the lifelong safety of gene therapy for CN-1 with retroviral vectors. They offer a better delineation of liver gene correction level required to achieve complete correction of bilirubinemia and pave the way for future clinical application of gene therapy for inherited liver disorders.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by grants from Association Française contre les Myopathies (AFM) and from the GIS-Maladies Rares. We thank the Lentiviral Vector Production Unit of the Swiss Institute of Technology Lausanne (http://tronolab.epfl.ch) supported by the AFM for providing stocks of lentiviral vectors.

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Author notes

  1. T H Nguyen and D Aubert: These authors contributed equally to this work

Authors and Affiliations

  1. INSERM, CIC-04, Biothérapies hépatiques, CHU Hotel Dieu, Nantes, France

    T H Nguyen, D Aubert, M Bellodi-Privato, M Flageul, V Pichard & N Ferry

  2. Service de biochimie, Hôpital Saint Joseph, Paris, France

    Z Jaidane-Abdelghani & A Myara

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  1. T H Nguyen
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Correspondence to N Ferry.

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Nguyen, T., Aubert, D., Bellodi-Privato, M. et al. Critical assessment of lifelong phenotype correction in hyperbilirubinemic Gunn rats after retroviral mediated gene transfer. Gene Ther 14, 1270–1277 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.gt.3302993

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