Preclinical Evaluation of a Novel TALEN Targeting CCR5 Confirms Efficacy and Safety in Conferring Resistance to HIV-1 Infection.
Marianna RomitoAlexandre JuilleratYik Lim KokMarkus HildenbeutelManuel RhielGeoffroy AndrieuxJohannes GeigerCarsten RudolphClaudio MussolinoAymeric DuclertKarin J MetznerPhilippe DuchateauToni CathomenTatjana I CornuPublished in: Biotechnology journal (2020)
Therapies to treat patients infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) aim at preventing viral replication but fail to eliminate the virus. Although transplantation of allogeneic CCR5Δ32 homozygous stem cell grafts provided a cure for a few patients, this approach is not considered a general therapeutic strategy because of potential side effects. Conversely, gene editing to disrupt the C-C chemokine receptor type 5 (CCR5) locus, which encodes the major HIV coreceptor, has shown to confer resistance to CCR5-tropic HIV strains. Here, an engineered transcription activator-like effector nuclease (TALEN) that enables efficient CCR5 editing in hematopoietic cells is presented. After transferring TALEN-encoding mRNA into primary CD4+ T cells, up to 89% of CCR5 alleles are disrupted. Genotyping confirms the genetic stability of the CCR5-edited cells, and genome-wide off-target analyses established the absence of relevant mutagenic events. When challenging the edited T cells with CCR5-tropic HIV, protection in a dose-dependent manner is observed. Functional assessments reveal no significant differences between edited and control cells in terms of proliferation and their ability to secrete cytokines upon exogenous stimuli. In conclusion, a highly active and specific TALEN to disrupt CCR5 is successfully engineered, paving the way for its clinical application in hematopoietic stem cell grafts.
Keyphrases
- human immunodeficiency virus
- antiretroviral therapy
- regulatory t cells
- dendritic cells
- hiv infected
- hiv positive
- hepatitis c virus
- genome wide
- crispr cas
- induced apoptosis
- hiv aids
- end stage renal disease
- hiv testing
- stem cells
- ejection fraction
- cell cycle arrest
- newly diagnosed
- chronic kidney disease
- men who have sex with men
- signaling pathway
- prognostic factors
- sars cov
- stem cell transplantation
- escherichia coli
- gene expression
- high throughput
- low dose
- cell therapy
- cell death
- peritoneal dialysis
- patient reported outcomes
- climate change
- copy number
- south africa
- mesenchymal stem cells
- high dose
- cancer therapy
- genetic diversity