Long-term expression of the glucocerebrosidase gene in mouse and human hematopoietic progenitors

Gaucher disease (GD), one of the most common inherited metabolic disorders, is an excellent candidate for gene therapy using hematopoietic stem cells as targets. Animal models have demonstrated the feasibility of introducing the human glucocerebrosidase (GC) gene into hematopoietic progenitors with long term expression using a variety of retroviral vectors. We have previously demonstrated the expression and integration of the human GC gene in mouse hematopoietic progenitors and their progeny 4-8 months post transplant in primary recipients using the retroviral vector MFG-GC. We now demonstrate enzyme expression in peripheral blood lymphocytes of secondary recipients more than 12 months post transplantation. We also show a transduction efficiency of up to 95% in colony forming unit-granulocyte macrophage (CFU-GM) colonies generated from transduced CD34+ cells from a variety of sources, using a centrifugation promoted infection protocol. Transduction has also been documented in long term culture initiating cells (LTCIC) from the same transduced CD34+ cells. These data indicate efficient transduction of mouse hematopoietic progenitors as well as human CD34+ cells using the retroviral vector MFG-GC.