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Evaluating clinically translatable conditioning for platelet gene therapy in murine hemophilia A with inhibitors. J Thromb Haemost 2024 Nov;22(11):3035-3047

Date

08/11/2024

Pubmed ID

39127324

Pubmed Central ID

PMC11513242

DOI

10.1016/j.jtha.2024.07.023

Scopus ID

2-s2.0-85202518466 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site)

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Platelet gene therapy is effective in hemophilia A (HA) mice even with inhibitors. Fludarabine (Flu), along with busulfan (Bu) or melphalan (Mel), preconditioning has been shown to be highly effective for hematopoietic stem cell transplantation in the clinic.

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the efficacy of Bu-Flu and Mel-Flu preconditioning in platelet gene therapy of HA with inhibitors.

METHODS: Bu-Flu and Mel-Flu were used to condition HA mice preimmunized with recombinant human factor (F)VIII. An optimal 660 centigray total body irradiation was used as a control regimen in parallel. Platelet-FVIII expression was introduced by transplantation of 2bF8 lentivirus (LV)-transduced hematopoietic stem cells. Animals were analyzed by fluorescence-activated cell sorting, quantitative polymerase chain reaction, FVIII assays, and tail bleeding tests.

RESULTS: Bu-Flu, but not Mel-Flu, enabled successful 2bF8 gene therapy. All recipients achieved >55% chimerism post hematopoietic stem cell transplantation in both Bu-Flu and 660 centigray groups, with comparable copy numbers of 2bF8 cassette and the platelet-FVIII levels. The bleeding phenotype was rescued in 2bF8LV-transduced recipients. FVIII inhibitor titers declined with time, with comparable disappearance time of inhibitors between the 2 groups. When animals were rechallenged with recombinant human FVIII after the titers dropped to undetectable levels, no inhibitors were detected in 2bF8LV-transduced recipients. In contrast, all untransduced transplanted control mice produced inhibitors. These data demonstrate that immune tolerance was established in 2bF8LV-transduced primed HA mice under Bu-Flu conditioning.

CONCLUSION: Bu-Flu preconditioning allows for successfully introducing platelet-FVIII expression to restore hemostasis and induce immune tolerance in primed HA mice, suggesting that this approach is a promising clinically translatable strategy for gene therapy of HA with inhibitors.

Author List

Chen Y, Li J, Schroeder JA, Jing W, Shi Q

Author

Qizhen Shi MD, PhD Professor in the Pediatrics department at Medical College of Wisconsin




MESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold

Animals
Blood Platelets
Busulfan
Disease Models, Animal
Factor VIII
Genetic Therapy
Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation
Hemophilia A
Humans
Lentivirus
Mice
Mice, Inbred C57BL
Transplantation Conditioning
Vidarabine