Animal Testing of Retroviral-Mediated Gene Therapy for Factor VIII Deficiency

Introduction

Hemophilia A results from the plasma deficiency of factor VIII, a gene carried on the X chromosome. Bleeding results from a lack of coagulation factor VIII, a large and complex protein that circulates in complex with its carrier, von Willebrand factor (vWF).¹ Severe hemophilia A (<1% of normal circulating levels) is associated with a high degree of mortality, due to spontaneous and trauma-induced, life-threatening and crippling bleeding episodes.² Current treatment in the United States consists of infusion of plasma-derived or recombinant factor VIII in response to bleeding episodes.³ Such treatment fails to prevent cumulative joint damage, a major cause of hemophilia-associated morbidity.⁴ Availability of prophylactic treatment, which would reduce the number and severity of bleeding episodes and, consequently, would limit such joint damage, is limited by cost and the problems associated with repeated venous access. Other problems are associated with frequent replacement treatment, including the dangers of transmission of blood-borne infections derived from plasma used as a source of factor VIII or tissue culture or formulation components. These dangers are reduced, but not eliminated, by current manufacturing techniques. Furthermore, approximately 1 in 5 patients with severe hemophilia treated with recombinant or plasma-derived factor VIII develop inhibitory humoral immune responses. In some cases, new inhibitors have developed, apparently in response to unnatural modifications introduced during manufacture or purification.⁵

Gene therapy could circumvent most of these difficulties. In theory, a single injection of a vector encoding the factor VIII gene could provide constant plasma levels of factor in the long term. However, long-term expression after gene transfer of a systemically expressed protein in higher mammals has seldom been described. In some cases, a vector that appeared promising in a rodent model has not worked well in larger animals, for example, due to a massive immune response not seen in the rodent.⁶ An excellent review of early efforts at factor VIII gene therapy appeared in an earlier volume of this series.⁷ A summary of results from various in vivo experiments is shown in Table 1. This chapter will focus on results pertaining to studies using vectors based on murine retroviruses, including our own work.

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