Baruteau, J;
Waddington, SN;
Alexander, IE;
Gissen, P;
(2017)
Delivering efficient liver-directed AAV-mediated gene therapy.
Gene Therapy
, 24
(5)
pp. 263-264.
10.1038/gt.2016.90.
Preview |
Text
Julien letter to editor.pdf - Accepted Version Download (105kB) | Preview |
Abstract
Adeno-associated virus vectors (AAV) have become the leading technology for liver-directed gene therapy. After the pioneering trials using AAV2 and AAV8 to treat haemophilia B, D’Avola et al. recently reported the first-in-human clinical trial of adeno-associated virus vector serotype 5 (AAV5) in acute intermittent porphyria (AIP). Treatment was reported as safe, but the main surrogate biomarkers of AIP, porphobilinogen (PBG) and delta-aminolevulinate (ALA) were unchanged. This lack of efficacy contrasts with results from the haemophilia B trial using AAV8 capsid by Nathwani et al., which showed a significant and long-lasting improvement of the clinical phenotype. Haemophilia B is an amenable target for successful gene therapy as raising expression of plasma factor IX (FIX) level above 1% can modify the phenotype from severe to moderate. Development of a variety of capsids for clinical application is useful to overcome pre-existing neutralising antibodies. The differences in cell-specific transduction by different AAV serotypes are primarily owing to specificities in cellular uptake or post cell-entry processing. Indeed AAV5 presents several theoretical advantages as an alternative capsid to AAV8 for liver-directed gene therapy: suitable liver tropism, less off-target biodistribution, low seroprevalence in humans and minimal cross-reactivity with other serotypes.
Archive Staff Only
View Item |