AAV-mediated MUC5AC siRNA delivery to prevent mucociliary dysfunction in asthma

The main structural components of mucus produced in the lung are mucin 5B (MUC5B) and mucin 5AC (MUC5AC) where a relatively higher expression of MUC5B is typical in health. In the lungs of individuals with asthma, there is a shift from MUC5B to MUC5AC as the predominantly secreted mucin which has been shown to impair mucociliary clearance (MCC) and increase airway mucus plug formation. Given its role in asthmatic lung disease, MUC5AC represents a potential therapeutic target where a gene delivery approach could be leveraged to modulate its expression. For these purposes, we explored adeno-associated virus serotype 6 (AAV6), as a viral gene vector to transduce airway epithelial cells and reduce MUC5AC expression via siRNA delivery. We confirmed that AAV6 was able to transduce epithelial cells in vitro as well as in the airways of healthy mice in vivo with high transgene expression in mucus-secreting goblet cells. Using multiple particle tracking analysis, we observed that AAV6 was capable of penetrating both normal and MUC5AC-enriched mucus barriers. AAV6 carrying MUC5AC-targeting siRNA was evaluated as a prophylactic treatment in HAE cell cultures before IL-13 challenge. IL-13 stimulated HAE cultures treated with AAV6-MUC5AC siRNA had significantly reduced MUC5AC mRNA and protein expression compared to untreated controls. Mucociliary transport in IL-13 stimulated HAE cultures was also maintained and comparable to healthy controls following AAV6-MUC5AC siRNA treatment. Together, these findings support that AAV6 may be used as an inhaled gene therapy to suppress MUC5AC overexpression and restore normal airway clearance function in asthma.