Gene Therapy for Neurodegenerative Diseases

A special issue of Brain Sciences (ISSN 2076-3425).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 January 2020) | Viewed by 15661

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Abigail Wexner Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital, Columbus, OH 43205, USA
Interests: neurological, neuromuscular and neurodegenerative diseases; gene therapy; AAV; in vitro modeling; lysosomal storage disorders
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Neurodegenerative disorders are a devastating burden for patients and their families. Many of these diseases progress rapidly, thereby robbing the patients of key functions including cognition, vision, hearing, and movement. There is an urgent need for the development of therapeutics to slow down or halt the progression of neurodegeneration. Gene therapy approaches using adeno-associated viral vectors (AAVs) are emerging as a promising strategy to target the nervous system and hold the potential for long-lasting benefit with only a single treatment. Many innovative strategies targeting either underlying mutations that cause neurodegeneration or interfering with pathways involved in disease progression are currently under development.

This Special Issue is dedicated to gene therapy approaches for neurodegenerative diseases. It will cover research articles on therapeutic gene therapy strategies for various disorders affecting the nervous and neuromuscular systems. Articles that describe the development of new methods or compare different viral vector systems (AAVs or other viral vectors) for nervous system use are also welcome. Comprehensive reviews providing an overview over gene therapy studies for neurodegenerative disorders or on AAV gene therapy vectors and their targeting efficiency in the nervous system will also be included.

Dr. Kathrin Meyer
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • neurodegenerative disorders
  • gene therapy
  • adeno-associated viral vectors (AAV)
  • neuromuscular disorders

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Review

16 pages, 842 KiB  
Review
Management of Neuroinflammatory Responses to AAV-Mediated Gene Therapies for Neurodegenerative Diseases
by Barbara A. Perez, Alison Shutterly, Ying Kai Chan, Barry J. Byrne and Manuela Corti
Brain Sci. 2020, 10(2), 119; https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci10020119 - 22 Feb 2020
Cited by 84 | Viewed by 14832
Abstract
Recently, adeno-associated virus (AAV)-mediated gene therapies have attracted clinical interest for treating neurodegenerative diseases including spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), Canavan disease (CD), Parkinson’s disease (PD), and Friedreich’s ataxia (FA). The influx of clinical findings led to the first approved gene therapy for neurodegenerative [...] Read more.
Recently, adeno-associated virus (AAV)-mediated gene therapies have attracted clinical interest for treating neurodegenerative diseases including spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), Canavan disease (CD), Parkinson’s disease (PD), and Friedreich’s ataxia (FA). The influx of clinical findings led to the first approved gene therapy for neurodegenerative disorders in 2019 and highlighted new safety concerns for patients. Large doses of systemically administered AAV stimulate host immune responses, resulting in anti-capsid and anti-transgene immunity with implications for transgene expression, treatment longevity, and patient safety. Delivering lower doses directly to the central nervous system (CNS) is a promising alternative, resulting in higher transgene expression with decreased immune responses. However, neuroinflammatory responses after CNS-targeted delivery of AAV are a critical concern. Reported signs of AAV-associated neuroinflammation in preclinical studies include dorsal root ganglion (DRG) and spinal cord pathology with mononuclear cell infiltration. In this review, we discuss ways to manage neuroinflammation, including choice of AAV capsid serotypes, CNS-targeting routes of delivery, genetic modifications to the vector and/or transgene, and adding immunosuppressive strategies to clinical protocols. As additional gene therapies for neurodegenerative diseases enter clinics, tracking biomarkers of neuroinflammation will be important for understanding the impact immune reactions can have on treatment safety and efficacy. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Gene Therapy for Neurodegenerative Diseases)
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