Molecular Therapy: Methods & Clinical Development (Mar 2023)

Characterization of the humanized FRG mouse model and development of an AAV-LK03 variant with improved liver lobular biodistribution

  • Marti Cabanes-Creus,
  • Renina Gale Navarro,
  • Sophia H.Y. Liao,
  • Suzanne Scott,
  • Rodrigo Carlessi,
  • Ramon Roca-Pinilla,
  • Maddison Knight,
  • Grober Baltazar,
  • Erhua Zhu,
  • Matthew Jones,
  • Elena Denisenko,
  • Alistair R.R. Forrest,
  • Ian E. Alexander,
  • Janina E.E. Tirnitz-Parker,
  • Leszek Lisowski

Journal volume & issue
Vol. 28
pp. 220 – 237

Abstract

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Recent clinical successes have intensified interest in using adeno-associated virus (AAV) vectors for therapeutic gene delivery. The liver is a key clinical target, given its critical physiological functions and involvement in a wide range of genetic diseases. In the present study, we first investigated the validity of a liver xenograft mouse model repopulated with primary hepatocytes using single-nucleus RNA sequencing (sn-RNA-seq) by studying the transcriptomic profile of human hepatocytes pre- and post-engraftment. Complementary immunofluorescence analyses performed in highly engrafted animals confirmed that the human hepatocytes organize and present appropriate patterns of zone-dependent enzyme expression in this model. Next, we tested a set of rationally designed HSPG de-targeted AAV-LK03 variants for relative transduction performance in human hepatocytes. We used immunofluorescence, next-generation sequencing, and single-nucleus transcriptomics data from highly engrafted FRG mice to demonstrate that the optimally HSPG de-targeted AAV-LK03 displayed a significantly improved lobular transduction profile in this model.

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