Regulated protein expression for in vivo gene therapy for neurological disorders: Progress, strategies, and issues

Document Type

Article

Abstract

The field of in vivo gene therapy has matured to the point where there are numerous clinical trials underway including late-stage clinical trials. Several viral vectors are especially efficient and support lifetime protein expression in the brain and a number of clinical trials are underway for various progressive or chronic neurological disorders including Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, and Batten's disease. To date, however, none of the vectors in clinical use have any direct way to reverse or control their transgene product in the event continued protein expression should become problematic. Several schemes that use elements within the vector design have been developed that allow an external drug or pro-drug to alter ongoing protein expression after in vivo gene transfer. The most promising and most studied regulated protein expression methods for in vivo gene transfer are reviewed. In addition, potential scientific and clinical advantages of transgene regulation for gene therapy are discussed. © 2012 Elsevier Inc.

Keywords

Adeno-associated virus, Adenovirus, Central nervous system, Ecdysone, In vivo gene transfer, Lentivirus, Mifepristone, Tetracycline, Transcriptional regulation, Viral vector

Publication Date

11-1-2012

Publication Title

Neurobiology of Disease

ISSN

09699961

E-ISSN

1095953X

Volume

48

Issue

2

First Page

212

Last Page

221

PubMed ID

22426391

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

10.1016/j.nbd.2012.03.001

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