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Nafchi NAM, Chilcott EM, Brown S, Fuller HR, Bowerman M, Yáñez-Muñoz RJ. Enhanced expression of the human Survival motor neuron 1 gene from a codon-optimised cDNA transgene in vitro and in vivo. Gene Ther 2023; 30:812-825. [PMID: 37322133 DOI: 10.1038/s41434-023-00406-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/20/2022] [Revised: 04/14/2023] [Accepted: 05/04/2023] [Indexed: 06/17/2023]
Abstract
Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is a neuromuscular disease particularly characterised by degeneration of ventral motor neurons. Survival motor neuron (SMN) 1 gene mutations cause SMA, and gene addition strategies to replace the faulty SMN1 copy are a therapeutic option. We have developed a novel, codon-optimised hSMN1 transgene and produced integration-proficient and integration-deficient lentiviral vectors with cytomegalovirus (CMV), human synapsin (hSYN) or human phosphoglycerate kinase (hPGK) promoters to determine the optimal expression cassette configuration. Integrating, CMV-driven and codon-optimised hSMN1 lentiviral vectors resulted in the highest production of functional SMN protein in vitro. Integration-deficient lentiviral vectors also led to significant expression of the optimised transgene and are expected to be safer than integrating vectors. Lentiviral delivery in culture led to activation of the DNA damage response, in particular elevating levels of phosphorylated ataxia telangiectasia mutated (pATM) and γH2AX, but the optimised hSMN1 transgene showed some protective effects. Neonatal delivery of adeno-associated viral vector (AAV9) vector encoding the optimised transgene to the Smn2B/- mouse model of SMA resulted in a significant increase of SMN protein levels in liver and spinal cord. This work shows the potential of a novel codon-optimised hSMN1 transgene as a therapeutic strategy for SMA.
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Affiliation(s)
- Neda A M Nafchi
- AGCTlab.org, Centre of Gene and Cell Therapy, Centre for Biomedical Sciences, Department of Biological Sciences, School of Life Sciences and the Environment, Royal Holloway University of London, Egham, TW20 0EX, UK
| | - Ellie M Chilcott
- AGCTlab.org, Centre of Gene and Cell Therapy, Centre for Biomedical Sciences, Department of Biological Sciences, School of Life Sciences and the Environment, Royal Holloway University of London, Egham, TW20 0EX, UK
| | - Sharon Brown
- School of Pharmacy and Bioengineering, Keele University, Staffordshire, ST5 5BG, UK
- Wolfson Centre for Inherited Neuromuscular Disease, TORCH Building, RJAH Orthopaedic Hospital, Oswestry, SY10 7AG, UK
| | - Heidi R Fuller
- School of Pharmacy and Bioengineering, Keele University, Staffordshire, ST5 5BG, UK
- Wolfson Centre for Inherited Neuromuscular Disease, TORCH Building, RJAH Orthopaedic Hospital, Oswestry, SY10 7AG, UK
| | - Melissa Bowerman
- Wolfson Centre for Inherited Neuromuscular Disease, TORCH Building, RJAH Orthopaedic Hospital, Oswestry, SY10 7AG, UK
- School of Medicine, Keele University, Staffordshire, ST5 5BG, UK
| | - Rafael J Yáñez-Muñoz
- AGCTlab.org, Centre of Gene and Cell Therapy, Centre for Biomedical Sciences, Department of Biological Sciences, School of Life Sciences and the Environment, Royal Holloway University of London, Egham, TW20 0EX, UK.
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