Pre-clinical Gene Therapy with AAV9/AGA in Aspartylglucosaminuria Mice Provides Evidence for Clinical Translation.

Aspartylglucosaminuria (AGU) is an autosomal recessive lysosomal storage disease caused by loss of the enzyme aspartylglucosaminidase (AGA), resulting in AGA substrate accumulation. AGU patients have a slow but progressive neurodegenerative disease course, for which there is no approved disease-modifying treatment. In this study, AAV9/AGA was administered to Aga-/- mice intravenously (i.v.) or intrathecally (i.t.), at a range of doses, either before or after disease pathology begins. At either treatment age, AAV9/AGA administration led to (1) dose dependently increased and sustained AGA activity in body fluids and tissues; (2) rapid, sustained, and dose-dependent elimination of AGA substrate in body fluids; (3) significantly rescued locomotor activity; (4) dose-dependent preservation of Purkinje neurons in the cerebellum; and (5) significantly reduced gliosis in the brain. Treated mice had no abnormal neurological phenotype and maintained body weight throughout the whole experiment to 18 months old. In summary, these results demonstrate that treatment of Aga-/- mice with AAV9/AGA is effective and safe, providing strong evidence that AAV9/AGA gene therapy should be considered for human translation. Further, we provide a direct comparison of the efficacy of an i.v. versus i.t. approach using AAV9, which should greatly inform the development of similar treatments for other related lysosomal storage diseases.

[A simple approach to create a common language, a necessary element for the development of a quality culture in a medical biology laboratory]. / Une approche simple pour créer un langage commun, élément nécessaire au développement d'une culture qualité au sein d'un laboratoire de biologie médicale.

The order no. 2010-49 of January 13, 2010 has made the accreditation of medical biology laboratories in France mandatory. It is based on international standards: NF EN ISO 15189 for medical biology laboratories and NF EN ISO 22870 for point-of-care testing. The NF EN ISO 15189:2012 standard is an adaptation of the requirements relating to the quality management system according to the ISO 9001:2008 standard, to improve delivery performance. As a company's performance is closely linked to its quality culture, the establishment and development of a quality culture within a company appears fundamental. The purpose of this article is to explain how to create a common language on which to base the development of quality culture within a medical biology laboratory. It is a simple approach which consists in asking 3 questions concerning quality management to the members of the team of this laboratory (what do you value? what emotions give you these values? what do you not value?) then to organize the answers in a reference frame for quality management.