Lentiviral gene therapy rescues p47phox chronic granulomatous disease and the ability to fight Salmonella infection in mice

Gene Ther. 2020 Sep;27(9):459-469. doi: 10.1038/s41434-020-0164-6. Epub 2020 Jun 12.

Abstract

Chronic granulomatous disease (CGD) is an inherited primary immunodeficiency disorder characterised by recurrent and often life-threatening infections and hyperinflammation. It is caused by defects of the phagocytic NADPH oxidase, a multicomponent enzyme system responsible for effective pathogen killing. A phase I/II clinical trial of lentiviral gene therapy is underway for the most common form of CGD, X-linked, caused by mutations in the gp91phox subunit of the NADPH oxidase. We propose to use a similar strategy to tackle p47phox-deficient CGD, caused by mutations in NCF1, which encodes the p47phox cytosolic component of the enzymatic complex. We generated a pCCLCHIM-p47phox lentiviral vector, containing the chimeric Cathepsin G/FES myeloid promoter and a codon-optimised version of the human NCF1 cDNA. Here we show that transduction with the pCCLCHIM-p47phox vector efficiently restores p47phox expression and biochemical NADPH oxidase function in p47phox-deficient human and murine cells. We also tested the ability of our gene therapy approach to control infection by challenging p47phox-null mice with Salmonella Typhimurium, a leading cause of sepsis in CGD patients, and found that mice reconstituted with lentivirus-transduced hematopoietic stem cells had a reduced bacterial load compared with untreated mice. Overall, our results potentially support the clinical development of a gene therapy approach using the pCCLCHIM-p47phox vector.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Genetic Therapy
  • Granulomatous Disease, Chronic* / genetics
  • Granulomatous Disease, Chronic* / therapy
  • Humans
  • Mice
  • NADPH Oxidases / genetics
  • Salmonella Infections*

Substances

  • NADPH Oxidases