 |
Project 4: A Phase I Safety Study in Patients
With Severe Hemophilias A and B Using AAV Vector to Deliver the
Gene for Human Factors VIII and IX into the Liver.
Hemophilias A and B are due to mutations in the factor VIII and
IX genes, respectively These diseases are good models for gene
therapy because of the relatively straightforward clinical parameters
that include measurement of the transgene product by simple blood
measurements and changes in clotting based on plasma levels. Patients
with less than 1% clotting activity have very severe disease,
between 1 to 5% a more moderate disease, and 5 to 20% mild disease.
A wide-range of circulating factor is well tolerated making gene
regulation unnecessary for gene therapy approaches. The liver
is the organ in which these two clotting factors are normally
synthesized. This makes it an attractive target for gene therapy
approaches. While factor IX may be treatable with muscle delivery
of a factor IX cDNA, factor VIII produced in the muscle is not
efficiently secreted into the bloodstream. Moreover, there are
still a number of issues that are unresolved when the muscle and
liver approaches for treating FIX deficiency are directly compared.
These include the relative risks of inhibitor formation, the ability
to reach therapeutic versus curative levels of factor, and the
relative dose of vector required to achieve a given level of plasma
factor concentration. Recombinant AAV-mediated liver gene transfer
has proven to be safe as well as efficacious in both small and
large animal models of hemophilia. The goal of this proposal is
to develop two phase I rAAV-mediated liver-based clinical trials
for the treatment of hemophilias A and B. Our primary goal will
be to address the safety of this approach in humans. The secondary
goal will be to demonstrate phenotypic improvement in patients
with hemophilia. The trial design here will also provide useful
information for future liver-based clinical trials.
|
 |