AAV8 Gene Therapy Rescues the Newborn Phenotype of a Mouse Model of Crigler-Najjar.

Adeno-associated viral (AAV) vectors can target the liver, making them an attractive platform for gene therapy approaches that require the correction of hepatocytes. Crigler-Najjar syndrome is an autosomal recessive disorder of bilirubin metabolism that occurs when the liver's uridine diphosphate glucuronosyl transferase 1A1 (UGT1A1) enzyme activity is partially or completely absent. This syndrome is characterized by elevated bilirubin levels in the blood. An AAV8 vector was developed expressing a codon-optimized human version of UGT1A1 from a liver-specific promoter. High doses of the vector rescued neonatal lethality in newborn UGT1 knockout (KO) mice, which serve as a model of Crigler-Najjar syndrome, and significantly increased survival from 5 to 270 days. Newborn UGT1 KO mice treated with AAV had serum total bilirubin levels that were 5.7 times higher than the levels seen in heterozygous and wild-type mice, likely due to dilution of vector genome copies (GC) in the liver resulting from a proliferation of hepatocytes during growth of the animal. The elevation in serum total bilirubin levels in adult UGT1 KO mice depended on the AAV8 vector dose. At doses <1011 GC/mouse, total bilirubin levels returned to those seen in phototherapy-rescued UGT1 KO mice. Mice injected with vector at 1011 or 3 × 1011 GC/mouse had sustained reduced total bilirubin levels throughout the duration of the study. When an AAV8 vector was re-administered in mice with elevated total bilirubin levels, serum total bilirubin levels decreased to wild-type levels (0.1-0.3 mg/dL) in mice that received a vector dose of 3 × 1012 GC/kg. Therefore, a low-level and likely transient decrease in serum total bilirubin during the first days of life is necessary for rescuing the lethal phenotype present in the neonatal UGT1 KO mouse. Furthermore, it was possible to ablate the elevated total bilirubin levels in adult mice by re-administering an AAV8 vector.