Journal Article

AAV-mediated interneuron-specific gene replacement for Dravet syndrome

Bard, Angela M, Ryu, Jiyun, Wei, Aguan D, Ramirez, Jan-Marino, Lein, Ed S, Oliveira Santos, Luiz M, Martinez, Refugio A, Kalume, Franck K, Bishaw, Yemeserach, Luber, Em, Ting, Jonathan T, Mich, John K, Gore, Bryan B, Miranda, Nicole, Guo, Rong, Levi, Boaz P

2023

Overview

Dravet syndrome (DS) is a devastating developmental epileptic encephalopathy marked by treatment-resistant seizures, developmental delay, intellectual disability, motor deficits, and a 10-20% rate of premature death. Most DS patients harbor loss-of-function mutations in one copy of , which has been associated with inhibitory neuron dysfunction. Here we developed an interneuron-targeting AAV human gene replacement therapy using cell class-specific enhancers. We generated a split-intein fusion form of to circumvent AAV packaging limitations and deliver via a dual vector approach using cell class-specific enhancers. These constructs produced full-length Na 1.1 protein and functional sodium channels in HEK293 cells and in brain cells . After packaging these vectors into enhancer-AAVs and administering to mice, immunohistochemical analyses showed telencephalic GABAergic interneuron-specific and dose-dependent transgene biodistribution. These vectors conferred strong dose-dependent protection against postnatal mortality and seizures in two DS mouse models carrying independent loss-of-function alleles of at two independent research sites, supporting the robustness of this approach. No mortality or toxicity was observed in wild-type mice injected with single vectors expressing either the N-terminal or C-terminal halves of , or the dual vector system targeting interneurons. In contrast, nonselective neuronal targeting of conferred less rescue against mortality and presented substantial preweaning lethality. These findings demonstrate proof-of-concept that interneuron-specific AAV-mediated gene replacement is sufficient for significant rescue in DS mouse models and suggest it could be an effective therapeutic approach for patients with DS.

• Publisher: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press,Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
• Subject: Animal models / Convulsions & seizures / Encephalopathy / Enhancers / Epilepsy / Gene therapy / Intellectual disabilities / Interneurons / Lethality / Mortality / Neuroscience / Seizures / Sodium channels (voltage-gated) / Telencephalon / Toxicity / Transgenes / γ-Aminobutyric acid