Transduction of Human Stem and Progenitor Cells

Children'S Hospital Of Los Angeles, Los Angeles CA

Investigators

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Abstract

Kohn, Donald B. The fundamental obstacle to effective gene therapy for hematopoietic diseases continues to be the difficulty in obtaining sufficiently high levels of gene transfer into Lympho-Hematopoietic Stem Cells (LHSC). At the core of this problem is the mismatch in the biology of the chosen target cell, i.e. the non-cycling LHSC, and the use of vector systems that preferentially transduce cycling cells. We hypothesize that a combination of vector modifications, alternative cell targets and selective expansion of corrected cells will be required to achieve adequate levels of gene correction for most diseases. Our goal in this proposal is to explore the potential of all three approaches. Our Specific Aims are: 1. To determine the relative capacity of Human Foamy Virus (HFV) and Human Immune-deficiency Virus-1 (HIV-1) based vectors to transduce quiescent human hematopoietic cells; 2. To determine whether lineage-committed progenitors, i.e. Common Lymphoid (CLP), and Common Myeloid Progenitors (CMP) offer advantages over pluripotent Lympho-hematopoietic Stem Cells as targets for gene therapy; 3. To determine whether expansion of transduced human LHSC and progenitors can be accomplished by conditional expression of a "cell growth switch" linked to a binding