Seven-year follow-up of durability and safety of AAV CNS gene therapy for a lysosomal storage disorder in a large animal
Sara Marcó, Virginia Haurigot, Maria Luisa Jaén, Albert Ribera, Víctor Sánchez, Maria Molas, Miguel Garcia, Xavier León, Carles Roca, Xavier Sánchez, Joan Bertolin, Jennifer Pérez, Gemma Elias, Marc Navarro, Ana Carretero, Martı́ Pumarola, Anna Andaluz, Yvonne Espada, Sònia Añor, Fátima Bosch
Abstract
vg/dog) of AAV9 vectors carrying the canine sulfamidase, the enzyme deficient in mucopolysaccharidosis type IIIA. Periodic monitoring of CSF and blood, clinical and neurological evaluations, and magnetic resonance and ultrasound imaging of target organs demonstrated no toxicity related to treatment. AAV9-mediated gene transfer resulted in detection of sulfamidase activity in CSF throughout the study. Analysis at tissue level showed widespread sulfamidase expression and activity in the absence of histological findings in any region of encephalon, spinal cord, or dorsal root ganglia. Altogether, these results provide proof of durability of expression and long-term safety for intra-CSF delivery of AAV-based gene transfer vectors encoding therapeutic proteins to the CNS.