Perinatal stem-cell and gene therapy for hemoglobinopathies

Surbek, Daniel; Schoeberlein, Andreina; Wagner, Anna (2008). Perinatal stem-cell and gene therapy for hemoglobinopathies. Seminars in fetal and neonatal medicine, 13(4), pp. 282-90. Amsterdam: Elsevier 10.1016/j.siny.2008.03.002

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Most genetic diseases of the lymphohematopoietic system, including hemoglobinopathies, can now be diagnosed early in gestation. However, as yet, prenatal treatment is not available. Postnatal therapy by hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) transplantation from bone marrow, mobilized peripheral blood, or umbilical cord blood is possible for several of these diseases, in particular for the hemoglobinopathies, but is often limited by a lack of histocompatible donors, severe treatment-associated morbidity, and preexisting organ damage that developed before birth. In-utero transplantation of allogeneic HSC has been performed successfully in various animal models and recently in humans. However, the clinical success of this novel treatment is limited to diseases in which the fetus is affected by severe immunodeficiency. The lack of donor cell engraftment in nonimmunocompromised hosts is thought to be due to immunologic barriers, as well as to competitive fetal marrow population by host HSCs. Among the possible strategies to circumvent allogeneic HLA barriers, the use of gene therapy by genetically corrected autologous HSCs in the fetus is one of the most promising approaches. The recent development of strategies to overcome failure of efficient transduction of quiescent hematopoietic cells using new vector constructs and transduction protocols opens new perspectives for gene therapy in general, as well as for prenatal gene transfer in particular. The fetus might be especially susceptible for successful gene therapy approaches because of the developing, expanding hematopoietic system during gestation and the immunologic naiveté early in gestation, precluding immune reaction towards the transgene by inducing tolerance. Ethical issues, in particular regarding treatment safety, must be addressed more closely before clinical trials with fetal gene therapy in human pregnancies can be initiated.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

04 Faculty of Medicine > Department of Gynaecology, Paediatrics and Endocrinology (DFKE) > Clinic of Gynaecology
04 Faculty of Medicine > Pre-clinic Human Medicine > BioMedical Research (DBMR) > Unit Childrens Hospital > Forschungsgruppe Pränatale Medizin

UniBE Contributor:

Surbek, Daniel, Schoeberlein, Andreina, Wagner, Anna Margaretha

Subjects:

500 Science
500 Science > 570 Life sciences; biology
600 Technology > 610 Medicine & health

ISSN:

1744-165X

ISBN:

18420474

Publisher:

Elsevier

Language:

English

Submitter:

Factscience Import

Date Deposited:

04 Oct 2013 15:04

Last Modified:

05 Dec 2022 14:19

Publisher DOI:

10.1016/j.siny.2008.03.002

PubMed ID:

18420474

Web of Science ID:

000257609400011

BORIS DOI:

10.7892/boris.27876

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/27876 (FactScience: 113201)

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