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Effective gene therapy for an inherited CNS disease in a large animal model
Author(s) -
Vite Charles H.,
McGowan Joseph C.,
Niogi Sumit N.,
Passini Marco A.,
Drobatz Kenneth J.,
Haskins Mark E.,
Wolfe John H.
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
annals of neurology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 4.764
H-Index - 296
eISSN - 1531-8249
pISSN - 0364-5134
DOI - 10.1002/ana.20392
Subject(s) - central nervous system , genetic enhancement , neuropathology , lysosomal storage disease , human brain , cats , biology , pathology , viral vector , disease , neuroscience , gene , medicine , genetics , recombinant dna
Genetic diseases affecting the brain typically have widespread lesions that require global correction. Lysosomal storage diseases are good candidates for central nervous system gene therapy, because active enzyme from genetically corrected cells can be secreted and taken up by surrounding diseased cells, and only small amounts of enzyme (<5% of normal) are required to reverse storage lesions. Injection of gene transfer vectors into multiple sites in the mouse brain has been shown to mediate widespread reversal of storage lesions in several disease models. To study a brain closer in size to the human brain, we evaluated the extent of storage correction mediated by a limited number of adeno‐associated virus vector injections in the cat model of human α‐mannosidosis. The treated cats showed remarkable improvements in clinical neurological signs and in brain myelination assessed by quantitative magnetic resonance imaging. Postmortem examination showed that storage lesions were greatly reduced throughout the brain, even though gene transfer was limited to the areas surrounding the injection tracks. The data demonstrate that widespread improvement of neuropathology in a large mammalian brain can be achieved using multiple injection sites during one operation and suggest that this could be an effective treatment for the central nervous system component of human lysosomal enzyme deficiencies. Ann Neurol 2005;57:355–364