1. Intein-mediated protein trans-splicing expands adeno-associated virus transfer capacity in the retina
- Author
-
Elena Polishchuk, Carel B. Hoyng, Elena Marrocco, Alberto Auricchio, Ivana Trapani, Silvia Albert, Carlo Gesualdo, Carolina Iodice, Laura Giaquinto, Miriam Centrulo, Francesca Simonelli, Renato Minopoli, Enrico Maria Surace, Mariangela Lupo, Settimio Rossi, Maria Antonietta De Matteis, Frans P.M. Cremers, Paola Tiberi, Patrizia Tornabene, Antonella Iuliano, Roman S. Polishchuk, Sonia de Simone, Fabio Dell'Aquila, Tornabene, Patrizia, Trapani, I., Minopoli, R., Centrulo, M., Lupo, M., De Simone, S., Tiberi, Mario, Dell'Aquila, F., Marrocco, E., Iodice, C., Iuliano, A., Gesualdo, C., Rossi, S., Giaquinto, L., Albert, S., Hoyng, C. B., Polishchuk, E., Cremers, F. P. M., Surace, E. M., Simonelli, F., De Matteis, M. A., Polishchuk, R., Auricchio, A., Trapani, Ivana, Minopoli, Renato, Centrulo, Miriam, Lupo, Mariangela, de Simone, Sonia, Tiberi, Paola, Dell'Aquila, Fabio, Marrocco, Elena, Iodice, Carolina, Iuliano, Antonella, Gesualdo, Carlo, Rossi, Settimio, Giaquinto, Laura, Albert, Silvia, Hoyng, Carel B., Polishchuk, Elena, Cremers, Frans P. M., Surace, Enrico M., Simonelli, Francesca, De Matteis, Maria A., Polishchuk, Roman, and Auricchio, Alberto
- Subjects
0301 basic medicine ,Swine ,Genetic enhancement ,Genetic Vectors ,Green Fluorescent Proteins ,Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells ,Protein reconstitution ,Trans-splicing ,Biology ,medicine.disease_cause ,Retina ,Article ,Sensory disorders Donders Center for Medical Neuroscience [Radboudumc 12] ,Inteins ,Trans-Splicing ,Mice ,03 medical and health sciences ,chemistry.chemical_compound ,0302 clinical medicine ,All institutes and research themes of the Radboud University Medical Center ,medicine ,Animals ,Humans ,Adeno-associated virus ,Gene ,Gene Transfer Techniques ,Retinal ,General Medicine ,Dependovirus ,3. Good health ,Cell biology ,Organoids ,Phenotype ,030104 developmental biology ,medicine.anatomical_structure ,chemistry ,Intein ,030217 neurology & neurosurgery ,Photoreceptor Cells, Vertebrate - Abstract
Retinal gene therapy with adeno-associated viral (AAV) vectors holds promises for treating inherited and noninherited diseases of the eye. Although clinical data suggest that retinal gene therapy is safe and effective, delivery of large genes is hindered by the limited AAV cargo capacity. Protein trans-splicing mediated by split inteins is used by single-cell organisms to reconstitute proteins. Here, we show that delivery of multiple AAV vectors each encoding one of the fragments of target proteins flanked by short split inteins results in protein trans-splicing and full-length protein reconstitution in the retina of mice and pigs and in human retinal organoids. The reconstitution of large therapeutic proteins using this approach improved the phenotype of two mouse models of inherited retinal diseases. Our data support the use of split intein–mediated protein trans-splicing in combination with AAV subretinal delivery for gene therapy of inherited blindness due to mutations in large genes.
- Published
- 2019