Current standard treatment of the X-linked bleeding disorder hemophilia is based on intravenous administration of recombinant protein. The infused protein is expensive, has a short half-life (thereby limiting duration of the therapeutic effect), is often targeted by antibody responses (thereby complicating/neutralizing therapy, creating immunotoxicities, and further increasing costs);and repeated intravenous access is required, which is painful and inconvenient. Upon treatment, 20-30% of patients with hemophilia A (factor VIII deficiency) and 1.5-3% of hemophilia B patients (factor IX deficiency) form inhibitory antibodies (""""""""inhibitors"""""""") against the infused factor. Inhibitor formation represents a serious complication of treatment and increases morbidity and mortality of the disease. Bypass reagents are available, but are expensive and cannot be routinely given because they pose a thrombotic risk. Clinical immune tolerance induction (ITI) protocols consist of frequent high-dose factor administrations for a long period of time and are very expensive. Bioengineering has created powerful reagents for non-invasive and cost-effective oral delivery of the protein (or a nucleic acid encoding the protein) to the gut. Within this Bioengineering Research Partnership application, we propose to advance this approach for treatment and for oral tolerance induction. Recently, the Daniell and Herzog labs found that oral delivery of bioencapsulated factor IX (in form of chloroplast transgenic plant leaf material) effectively prevented formation of inhibitory antibodies and anaphylactic reactions in subsequent protein replacement therapy in hemophilia B mice. The Leong lab developed an oral gene therapy for hemophilia based on plasmid vectors packaged into chitosan nanoparticles. Thus, oral delivery to the intestinal epithelium can provide both therapy that partially restores hemostasis in animals with hemophilia (thereby providing prophylaxis against spontaneous bleeding) and immune modulation (thereby preventing deleterious immune responses without use of immune suppressive drugs). In order to establish effective oral therapy for hemophilia A (which is the more prevalent form of the disease and has a much higher risk of inhibitor formation), we assembled an interdisciplinary team, encompassing plant biotechnology, bioengineering, immunology, and animal models. Specifically, we propose to i) determine the ability of nanoparticle-based oral gene therapy to correct coagulation and suppress antibody formation to F.VIII in murine models of hemophilia;ii) generate F.VIII chloroplast transgenic lettuce for oral delivery and prevention/reversal of inhibitor formation in protein replacement;and iii) scale up oral therapies to canine hemophilia A. Ultimately, we intend to integrate the approaches to provide an entirely oral-based treatment regimen that accomplished prophylaxis against bleeds and prevents inhibitor formation. This approach could readily be adapted to other inherited protein deficiencies or certain allergies.

Public Health Relevance

This project will develop novel methods for treatment of the inherited bleeding disorder hemophilia and for prevention of detrimental immune responses. The oral delivery technologies utilized here will improve quality of life of patients, reduce the risk of life-threatening bleeds, and reduce health care costs.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01HL109442-04
Application #
8720051
Study Section
Hemostasis and Thrombosis Study Section (HT)
Program Officer
Link, Rebecca P
Project Start
2011-08-01
Project End
2016-07-31
Budget Start
2014-08-01
Budget End
2015-07-31
Support Year
4
Fiscal Year
2014
Total Cost
$695,227
Indirect Cost
$85,125
Name
University of Florida
Department
Pediatrics
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
969663814
City
Gainesville
State
FL
Country
United States
Zip Code
32611
Wang, Hong-Xia; Song, Ziyuan; Lao, Yeh-Hsing et al. (2018) Nonviral gene editing via CRISPR/Cas9 delivery by membrane-disruptive and endosomolytic helical polypeptide. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 115:4903-4908
Lin, Po-Yen; Chiu, Ya-Ling; Huang, Jing-Huei et al. (2018) Oral Nonviral Gene Delivery for Chronic Protein Replacement Therapy. Adv Sci (Weinh) 5:1701079
Kwon, Kwang-Chul; Sherman, Alexandra; Chang, Wan-Jung et al. (2018) Expression and assembly of largest foreign protein in chloroplasts: oral delivery of human FVIII made in lettuce chloroplasts robustly suppresses inhibitor formation in haemophilia A mice. Plant Biotechnol J 16:1148-1160
Xiao, Yuhong; Daniell, Henry (2017) Long-term evaluation of mucosal and systemic immunity and protection conferred by different polio booster vaccines. Vaccine 35:5418-5425
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Herzog, Roland W; Nichols, Timothy C; Su, Jin et al. (2017) Oral Tolerance Induction in Hemophilia B Dogs Fed with Transplastomic Lettuce. Mol Ther 25:512-522
Lee, Jaewoo; Jackman, Jennifer G; Kwun, Jean et al. (2017) Nucleic acid scavenging microfiber mesh inhibits trauma-induced inflammation and thrombosis. Biomaterials 120:94-102
Ji, HaYeun; Kim, Hye Sung; Kim, Hae-Won et al. (2017) Application of induced pluripotent stem cells to model smooth muscle cell function in vascular diseases. Curr Opin Biomed Eng 1:38-44
Zhang, Bei; Shanmugaraj, Balamurugan; Daniell, Henry (2017) Expression and functional evaluation of biopharmaceuticals made in plant chloroplasts. Curr Opin Chem Biol 38:17-23

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