BACKGROUND: No effective long-term treatment is available for rheumatoid arthritis. Recent advances in gene therapy and cell therapy have demonstrated efficiency in collagen-induced arthritis (CIA). Interleukin-4 (IL-4) is already known to be efficient in CIA in systemic injection or administered by gene therapy. This study was designed to evaluate the effect of a non-viral gene therapy of CIA, involving injection of syngeneic fibroblasts transfected with a plasmid encoding for IL-4. METHODS: Immortalised fibroblasts from DBA/1 mice (DBA/1/0 cells) were transfected with a plasmid expressing IL-4 cDNA (DBA/1/IL-4 cells). Xenogeneic fibroblasts from Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) transfected with a plasmid expressing IL-4 cDNA (CHO/IL-4) were studied also. The cells were engrafted in mice developing CIA by subcutaneous injection of 3 x 10(6) DBA/1/0 or DBA/1/IL-4 or CHO/IL-4 cells. RESULTS: Injection of DBA/1/IL-4 cells, on days 10 and 25 after immunisation, was associated with a significant and lasting improvement in the clinical and histological evidence of joint inflammation and destruction as compared with DBA/1/0 and CHO/IL-4 cells. DBA/1/IL-4 cell treatment decreased also the production of IgG2a antibody to CII and the proliferation of CIIB-specific nodal T cells. Later treatments (engraftments on days 23 and 35 after immunisation) exerted also an anti-inflammatory effect, as evaluated on clinical and histological signs of CIA. CONCLUSIONS: Taken together, these findings indicate that systemic administration of syngeneic cells transfected with an anti-inflammatory cytokine gene, namely IL-4, with a non-viral method is effective in CIA and may attenuate the cytokine imbalance seen in this disease. Copyright 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
BACKGROUND: No effective long-term treatment is available for rheumatoid arthritis. Recent advances in gene therapy and cell therapy have demonstrated efficiency in collagen-induced arthritis (CIA). Interleukin-4 (IL-4) is already known to be efficient in CIA in systemic injection or administered by gene therapy. This study was designed to evaluate the effect of a non-viral gene therapy of CIA, involving injection of syngeneic fibroblasts transfected with a plasmid encoding for IL-4. METHODS: Immortalised fibroblasts from DBA/1 mice (DBA/1/0 cells) were transfected with a plasmid expressing IL-4 cDNA (DBA/1/IL-4 cells). Xenogeneic fibroblasts from Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) transfected with a plasmid expressing IL-4 cDNA (CHO/IL-4) were studied also. The cells were engrafted in mice developing CIA by subcutaneous injection of 3 x 10(6) DBA/1/0 or DBA/1/IL-4 or CHO/IL-4 cells. RESULTS: Injection of DBA/1/IL-4 cells, on days 10 and 25 after immunisation, was associated with a significant and lasting improvement in the clinical and histological evidence of joint inflammation and destruction as compared with DBA/1/0 and CHO/IL-4 cells. DBA/1/IL-4 cell treatment decreased also the production of IgG2a antibody to CII and the proliferation of CIIB-specific nodal T cells. Later treatments (engraftments on days 23 and 35 after immunisation) exerted also an anti-inflammatory effect, as evaluated on clinical and histological signs of CIA. CONCLUSIONS: Taken together, these findings indicate that systemic administration of syngeneic cells transfected with an anti-inflammatory cytokine gene, namely IL-4, with a non-viral method is effective in CIA and may attenuate the cytokine imbalance seen in this disease. Copyright 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Authors: Steven C Ghivizzani; Elvire Gouze; Jean-Noel Gouze; Jesse D Kay; Marsha L Bush; Rachael S Watson; Padraic P Levings; David M Nickerson; Patrick T Colahan; Paul D Robbins; Christopher H Evans Journal: Curr Gene Ther Date: 2008-08 Impact factor: 4.391