Long-term lineage commitment in hematopoietic stem cell gene therapy.

Hematopoietic Stem Cell (HSC) gene therapy (GT) may provide lifelong reconstitution of the hematopoietic system with gene-corrected cells1. However, the effects of underlying genetic diseases, replication stress, and aging on hematopoietic reconstitution and lineage specification remain unclear. In this study, we analyzed hematopoietic reconstitution in 53 patients treated with lentiviral-HSC-GT for diverse conditions such as metachromatic leukodystrophy2,3 (MLD), Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome4,5 (WAS), and ß-thalassemia6 (ß-Thal) over a follow-up period of up to 8 years, using vector integration sites as markers of clonal identity. We found that long-term hematopoietic reconstitution was supported by 770 to 35,000 active HSCs. While 50% of transplanted clones demonstrated multilineage potential across all conditions, the remaining clones exhibited a disease-specific preferential lineage output and long-term commitment: myeloid for MLD, lymphoid for WAS, and erythroid for ß-Thal, particularly in adult patients. Our results indicate that HSC clonogenic activity, lineage output, long-term lineage commitment, and rates of somatic mutations are influenced by the underlying disease, patient age at the time of therapy, the extent of genetic defect correction, and the hematopoietic stress imposed by the inherited disease. This suggests that HSCs adapt to the pathological condition during hematopoietic reconstitution.

Circulating hematopoietic stem/progenitor cell subsets contribute to human hematopoietic homeostasis.

ABSTRACT: In physiological conditions, few circulating hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells (cHSPCs) are present in the peripheral blood, but their contribution to human hematopoiesis remain unsolved. By integrating advanced immunophenotyping, single-cell transcriptional and functional profiling, and integration site (IS) clonal tracking, we unveiled the biological properties and the transcriptional features of human cHSPC subpopulations in relationship to their bone marrow (BM) counterpart. We found that cHSPCs reduced in cell count over aging and are enriched for primitive, lymphoid, and erythroid subpopulations, showing preactivated transcriptional and functional state. Moreover, cHSPCs have low expression of multiple BM-retention molecules but maintain their homing potential after xenotransplantation. By generating a comprehensive human organ-resident HSPC data set based on single-cell RNA sequencing data, we detected organ-specific seeding properties of the distinct trafficking HSPC subpopulations. Notably, circulating multi-lymphoid progenitors are primed for seeding the thymus and actively contribute to T-cell production. Human clonal tracking data from patients receiving gene therapy (GT) also showed that cHSPCs connect distant BM niches and participate in steady-state hematopoietic production, with primitive cHSPCs having the highest recirculation capability to travel in and out of the BM. Finally, in case of hematopoietic impairment, cHSPCs composition reflects the BM-HSPC content and might represent a biomarker of the BM state for clinical and research purposes. Overall, our comprehensive work unveiled fundamental insights into the in vivo dynamics of human HSPC trafficking and its role in sustaining hematopoietic homeostasis. GT patients' clinical trials were registered at ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT01515462 and NCT03837483) and EudraCT (2009-017346-32 and 2018-003842-18).

Severe West Nile virus and Sars-CoV-2 infections in a patient with thymoma and anti-type I IFN antibodies.

The current study aimed to investigate determinants of severity in a previously healthy patient who experienced two life-threatening infections, from West Nile Virus and SARS-CoV2. During COVID19 hospitalization he was diagnosed with a thymoma, retrospectively identified as already present at the time of WNV infection. Heterozygosity for p.Pro554Ser in the TLR3 gene, which increases susceptibility to severe COVID-19, and homozygosity for CCR5 c.554_585del, associated to severe WNV infection, were found. Neutralizing anti-IFN-α and anti-IFN-ω auto-antibodies were detected, likely induced by the underlying thymoma and increasing susceptibility to both severe COVID-19 pneumonia and West Nile encephalitis.

A Novel Assay in Whole Blood Demonstrates Restoration of Mitochondrial Activity in Phagocytes After Successful HSCT in Hyperinflamed X-Linked Chronic Granulomatous Disease.

X-linked chronic granulomatous disease is a rare disease caused by mutations in the CYBB gene. While more extensive knowledge is available on genetics, pathogenesis, and possible therapeutic options, mitochondrial activity and its implications on patient monitoring are still not well-characterized. We have developed a novel protocol to study mitochondrial activity on whole blood of XCGD patients before and after transplantation, as well as on XCGD carriers. Here we present results of these analyses and of the restoration of mitochondrial activity in hyperinflamed X-linked Chronic Granulomatous Disease after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Moreover, we show a strong direct correlation between mitochondrial activity, chimerism, and DHR monitored before and after transplantation and in XCGD carriers. In conclusion, based on these findings, we suggest testing this new ready-to-use marker to better characterize patients before and after treatment and to investigate disease expression in carriers.

T-cell defects in patients with ARPC1B germline mutations account for combined immunodeficiency.

ARPC1B is a key factor for the assembly and maintenance of the ARP2/3 complex that is involved in actin branching from an existing filament. Germline biallelic mutations in ARPC1B have been recently described in 6 patients with clinical features of combined immunodeficiency (CID), whose neutrophils and platelets but not T lymphocytes were studied. We hypothesized that ARPC1B deficiency may also lead to cytoskeleton and functional defects in T cells. We have identified biallelic mutations in ARPC1B in 6 unrelated patients with early onset disease characterized by severe infections, autoimmune manifestations, and thrombocytopenia. Immunological features included T-cell lymphopenia, low numbers of naïve T cells, and hyper-immunoglobulin E. Alteration in ARPC1B protein structure led to absent/low expression by flow cytometry and confocal microscopy. This molecular defect was associated with the inability of patient-derived T cells to extend an actin-rich lamellipodia upon T-cell receptor (TCR) stimulation and to assemble an immunological synapse. ARPC1B-deficient T cells additionally displayed impaired TCR-mediated proliferation and SDF1-α-directed migration. Gene transfer of ARPC1B in patients' T cells using a lentiviral vector restored both ARPC1B expression and T-cell proliferation in vitro. In 2 of the patients, in vivo somatic reversion restored ARPC1B expression in a fraction of lymphocytes and was associated with a skewed TCR repertoire. In 1 revertant patient, memory CD8+ T cells expressing normal levels of ARPC1B displayed improved T-cell migration. Inherited ARPC1B deficiency therefore alters T-cell cytoskeletal dynamics and functions, contributing to the clinical features of CID.

Lentiviral gene therapy corrects platelet phenotype and function in patients with Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome.

BACKGROUND: Thrombocytopenia is a serious issue for all patients with classical Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome (WAS) and X-linked thrombocytopenia (XLT) because it causes severe and life-threatening bleeding. Lentiviral gene therapy (GT) for WAS has shown promising results in terms of immune reconstitution. However, despite the reduced severity and frequency of bleeding events, platelet counts remain low in GT-treated patients. OBJECTIVE: We carefully investigated platelet defects in terms of phenotype and function in untreated patients with WAS and assessed the effect of GT treatment on platelet dysfunction. METHODS: We analyzed a cohort of 20 patients with WAS/XLT, 15 of them receiving GT. Platelet phenotype and function were analyzed by using electron microscopy, flow cytometry, and an aggregation assay. Platelet protein composition was assessed before and after GT by means of proteomic profile analysis. RESULTS: We show that platelets from untreated patients with WAS have reduced size, abnormal ultrastructure, and a hyperactivated phenotype at steady state, whereas activation and aggregation responses to agonists are decreased. GT restores platelet size and function early after treatment and reduces the hyperactivated phenotype proportionally to WAS protein expression and length of follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: Our study highlights the coexistence of morphologic and multiple functional defects in platelets lacking WAS protein and demonstrates that GT normalizes the platelet proteomic profile with consequent restoration of platelet ultrastructure and phenotype, which might explain the observed reduction of bleeding episodes after GT. These results are instrumental also from the perspective of a future clinical trial in patients with XLT only presenting with microthrombocytopenia.

Update on the safety and efficacy of retroviral gene therapy for immunodeficiency due to adenosine deaminase deficiency.

Adenosine deaminase (ADA) deficiency is a rare, autosomal-recessive systemic metabolic disease characterized by severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID). The treatment of choice for ADA-deficient SCID (ADA-SCID) is hematopoietic stem cell transplant from an HLA-matched sibling donor, although <25% of patients have such a donor available. Enzyme replacement therapy (ERT) partially and temporarily relieves immunodeficiency. We investigated the medium-term outcome of gene therapy (GT) in 18 patients with ADA-SCID for whom an HLA-identical family donor was not available; most were not responding well to ERT. Patients were treated with an autologous CD34(+)-enriched cell fraction that contained CD34(+) cells transduced with a retroviral vector encoding the human ADA complementary DNA sequence (GSK2696273) as part of single-arm, open-label studies or compassionate use programs. Overall survival was 100% over 2.3 to 13.4 years (median, 6.9 years). Gene-modified cells were stably present in multiple lineages throughout follow up. GT resulted in a sustained reduction in the severe infection rate from 1.17 events per person-year to 0.17 events per person-year (n = 17, patient 1 data not available). Immune reconstitution was demonstrated by normalization of T-cell subsets (CD3(+), CD4(+), and CD8(+)), evidence of thymopoiesis, and sustained T-cell proliferative capacity. B-cell function was evidenced by immunoglobulin production, decreased intravenous immunoglobulin use, and antibody response after vaccination. All 18 patients reported infections as adverse events; infections of respiratory and gastrointestinal tracts were reported most frequently. No events indicative of leukemic transformation were reported. Trial details were registered at www.clinicaltrials.gov as #NCT00598481.

The case of an APDS patient: Defects in maturation and function and decreased in vitro anti-mycobacterial activity in the myeloid compartment.

Activated PI3-kinase delta syndrome (APDS) was recently reported as a novel primary immunodeficiency caused by heterozygous gain-of-function mutations in PIK3CD gene. Here we describe immunological studies in a 19year old APDS patient for whom genetic diagnosis was discovered by Whole Exome Sequencing (WES) analysis. In addition to the progressive lymphopenia and defective antibody production we showed that the ability of the patient's B cells to differentiate in vitro is severely reduced. An in depth analysis of the myeloid compartment showed an increased expression of CD83 activation marker on monocytes and mono-derived DC cells. Moreover, monocytes-derived macrophages (MDMs) failed to solve the Mycobacterium bovis bacillus Calmette Guèrin (BCG) infection in vitro. Selective p110δ inhibitor IC87114 restored the MDM capacity to kill BCG in vitro. Our data show that the constitutive activation of Akt-mTOR pathway induces important alterations also in the myeloid compartment providing new insights in order to improve the therapeutic approach in these patients.

B-cell development and functions and therapeutic options in adenosine deaminase-deficient patients.

BACKGROUND: Adenosine deaminase (ADA) deficiency causes severe cellular and humoral immune defects and dysregulation because of metabolic toxicity. Alterations in B-cell development and function have been poorly studied. Enzyme replacement therapy (ERT) and hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) gene therapy (GT) are therapeutic options for patients lacking a suitable bone marrow (BM) transplant donor. OBJECTIVE: We sought to study alterations in B-cell development in ADA-deficient patients and investigate the ability of ERT and HSC-GT to restore normal B-cell differentiation and function. METHODS: Flow cytometry was used to characterize B-cell development in BM and the periphery. The percentage of gene-corrected B cells was measured by using quantitative PCR. B cells were assessed for their capacity to proliferate and release IgM after stimulation. RESULTS: Despite the severe peripheral B-cell lymphopenia, patients with ADA-deficient severe combined immunodeficiency showed a partial block in central BM development. Treatment with ERT or HSC-GT reverted most BM alterations, but ERT led to immature B-cell expansion. In the periphery transitional B cells accumulated under ERT, and the defect in maturation persisted long-term. HSC-GT led to a progressive improvement in B-cell numbers and development, along with increased levels of gene correction. The strongest selective advantage for ADA-transduced cells occurred at the transition from immature to naive cells. B-cell proliferative responses and differentiation to immunoglobulin secreting IgM after B-cell receptor and Toll-like receptor triggering were severely impaired after ERT and improved significantly after HSC-GT. CONCLUSIONS: ADA-deficient patients show specific defects in B-cell development and functions that are differently corrected after ERT and HSC-GT.

A case of T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia in retroviral gene therapy for ADA-SCID.

Hematopoietic stem cell gene therapy (GT) using a γ-retroviral vector (γ-RV) is an effective treatment for Severe Combined Immunodeficiency due to Adenosine Deaminase deficiency. Here, we describe a case of GT-related T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) that developed 4.7 years after treatment. The patient underwent chemotherapy and haploidentical transplantation and is currently in remission. Blast cells contain a single vector insertion activating the LIM-only protein 2 (LMO2) proto-oncogene, confirmed by physical interaction, and low Adenosine Deaminase (ADA) activity resulting from methylation of viral promoter. The insertion is detected years before T-ALL in multiple lineages, suggesting that further hits occurred in a thymic progenitor. Blast cells contain known and novel somatic mutations as well as germline mutations which may have contributed to transformation. Before T-ALL onset, the insertion profile is similar to those of other ADA-deficient patients. The limited incidence of vector-related adverse events in ADA-deficiency compared to other γ-RV GT trials could be explained by differences in transgenes, background disease and patient's specific factors.

Long-term and real-world safety and efficacy of retroviral gene therapy for adenosine deaminase deficiency.

Adenosine deaminase (ADA) deficiency leads to severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID). Previous clinical trials showed that autologous CD34+ cell gene therapy (GT) following busulfan reduced-intensity conditioning is a promising therapeutic approach for ADA-SCID, but long-term data are warranted. Here we report an analysis on long-term safety and efficacy data of 43 patients with ADA-SCID who received retroviral ex vivo bone marrow-derived hematopoietic stem cell GT. Twenty-two individuals (median follow-up 15.4 years) were treated in the context of clinical development or named patient program. Nineteen patients were treated post-marketing authorization (median follow-up 3.2 years), and two additional patients received mobilized peripheral blood CD34+ cell GT. At data cutoff, all 43 patients were alive, with a median follow-up of 5.0 years (interquartile range 2.4-15.4) and 2 years intervention-free survival (no need for long-term enzyme replacement therapy or allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation) of 88% (95% confidence interval 78.7-98.4%). Most adverse events/reactions were related to disease background, busulfan conditioning or immune reconstitution; the safety profile of the real world experience was in line with premarketing cohort. One patient from the named patient program developed a T cell leukemia related to treatment 4.7 years after GT and is currently in remission. Long-term persistence of multilineage gene-corrected cells, metabolic detoxification, immune reconstitution and decreased infection rates were observed. Estimated mixed-effects models showed that higher dose of CD34+ cells infused and younger age at GT affected positively the plateau of CD3+ transduced cells, lymphocytes and CD4+ CD45RA+ naive T cells, whereas the cell dose positively influenced the final plateau of CD15+ transduced cells. These long-term data suggest that the risk-benefit of GT in ADA remains favorable and warrant for continuing long-term safety monitoring. Clinical trial registration: NCT00598481 , NCT03478670 .

Hematopoietic reconstitution dynamics of mobilized- and bone marrow-derived human hematopoietic stem cells after gene therapy.

Mobilized peripheral blood is increasingly used instead of bone marrow as a source of autologous hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells for ex vivo gene therapy. Here, we present an unplanned exploratory analysis evaluating the hematopoietic reconstitution kinetics, engraftment and clonality in 13 pediatric Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome patients treated with autologous lentiviral-vector transduced hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells derived from mobilized peripheral blood (n = 7), bone marrow (n = 5) or the combination of the two sources (n = 1). 8 out of 13 gene therapy patients were enrolled in an open-label, non-randomized, phase 1/2 clinical study (NCT01515462) and the remaining 5 patients were treated under expanded access programs. Although mobilized peripheral blood- and bone marrow- hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells display similar capability of being gene-corrected, maintaining the engineered grafts up to 3 years after gene therapy, mobilized peripheral blood-gene therapy group shows faster neutrophil and platelet recovery, higher number of engrafted clones and increased gene correction in the myeloid lineage which correlate with higher amount of primitive and myeloid progenitors contained in hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells derived from mobilized peripheral blood. In vitro differentiation and transplantation studies in mice confirm that primitive hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells from both sources have comparable engraftment and multilineage differentiation potential. Altogether, our analyses reveal that the differential behavior after gene therapy of hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells derived from either bone marrow or mobilized peripheral blood is mainly due to the distinct cell composition rather than functional differences of the infused cell products, providing new frames of references for clinical interpretation of hematopoietic stem/progenitor cell transplantation outcome.

Hemophagocytic inflammatory syndrome in ADA-SCID: report of two cases and literature review.

Hemophagocytic inflammatory syndrome (HIS) is a rare form of secondary hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis caused by an impaired equilibrium between natural killer and cytotoxic T-cell activity, evolving in hypercytokinemia and multiorgan failure. In the context of inborn errors of immunity, HIS occurrence has been reported in severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) patients, including two cases of adenosine deaminase deficient-SCID (ADA-SCID). Here we describe two additional pediatric cases of ADA-SCID patients who developed HIS. In the first case, HIS was triggered by infectious complications while the patient was on enzyme replacement therapy; the patient was treated with high-dose corticosteroids and intravenous immunoglobulins with HIS remission. However, the patient required HLA-identical sibling donor hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) for a definitive cure of ADA-SCID, without HIS relapse up to 13 years after HSCT. The second patient presented HIS 2 years after hematopoietic stem cell gene therapy (GT), secondarily to Varicella-Zoster vaccination and despite CD4+ and CD8+ lymphocytes' reconstitution in line with other ADA SCID patients treated with GT. The child responded to trilinear immunosuppressive therapy (corticosteroids, Cyclosporine A, Anakinra). We observed the persistence of gene-corrected cells up to 5 years post-GT, without HIS relapse. These new cases of children with HIS, together with those reported in the literature, support the hypothesis that a major dysregulation in the immune system can occur in ADA-SCID patients. Our cases show that early identification of the disease is imperative and that a variable degree of immunosuppression could be an effective treatment while allogeneic HSCT is required only in cases of refractoriness. A deeper knowledge of immunologic patterns contributing to HIS pathogenesis in ADA-SCID patients is desirable, to identify new targeted treatments and ensure patients' long-term recovery.

Mild SARS-CoV-2 Infection After Gene Therapy in a Child With Wiskott-Aldrich Syndrome: A Case Report.

In this work we present the case of SARS-CoV-2 infection in a 1.5-year-old boy affected by severe Wiskott-Aldrich Syndrome with previous history of autoinflammatory disease, occurring 5 months after treatment with gene therapy. Before SARS-CoV-2 infection, the patient had obtained engraftment of gene corrected cells, resulting in WASP expression restoration and early immune reconstitution. The patient produced specific immunoglobulins to SARS-CoV-2 at high titer with neutralizing capacity and experienced a mild course of infection, with limited inflammatory complications, despite pre-gene therapy clinical phenotype.

Lentiviral haemopoietic stem/progenitor cell gene therapy for treatment of Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome: interim results of a non-randomised, open-label, phase 1/2 clinical study.

BACKGROUND: Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome is a rare, life-threatening, X-linked primary immunodeficiency characterised by microthrombocytopenia, infections, eczema, autoimmunity, and malignant disease. Lentiviral vector-mediated haemopoietic stem/progenitor cell (HSPC) gene therapy is a potentially curative treatment that represents an alternative to allogeneic HSPC transplantation. Here, we report safety and efficacy data from an interim analysis of patients with severe Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome who received lentiviral vector-derived gene therapy. METHODS: We did a non-randomised, open-label, phase 1/2 clinical study in paediatric patients with severe Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome, defined by either WAS gene mutation or absent Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome protein (WASP) expression or a Zhu clinical score of 3 or higher. We included patients who had no HLA-identical sibling donor available or, for children younger than 5 years of age, no suitable 10/10 matched unrelated donor or 6/6 unrelated cord blood donor. After treatment with rituximab and a reduced-intensity conditioning regimen of busulfan and fludarabine, patients received one intravenous infusion of autologous CD34+ cells genetically modified with a lentiviral vector encoding for human WAS cDNA. The primary safety endpoints were safety of the conditioning regimen and safety of lentiviral gene transfer into HSPCs. The primary efficacy endpoints were overall survival, sustained engraftment of genetically corrected HSPCs, expression of vector-derived WASP, improved T-cell function, antigen-specific responses to vaccinations, and improved platelet count and mean platelet volume normalisation. This interim analysis was done when the first six patients treated had completed at least 3 years of follow-up. The planned analyses are presented for the intention-to-treat population. This trial is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov (number NCT01515462) and EudraCT (number 2009-017346-32). FINDINGS: Between April 20, 2010, and Feb 26, 2015, nine patients (all male) were enrolled of whom one was excluded after screening; the age range of the eight treated children was 1·1-12·4 years. At the time of the interim analysis (data cutoff April 29, 2016), median follow-up was 3·6 years (range 0·5-5·6). Overall survival was 100%. Engraftment of genetically corrected HSPCs was successful and sustained in all patients. The fraction of WASP-positive lymphocytes increased from a median of 3·9% (range 1·8-35·6) before gene therapy to 66·7% (55·7-98·6) at 12 months after gene therapy, whereas WASP-positive platelets increased from 19·1% (range 4·1-31·0) to 76·6% (53·1-98·4). Improvement of immune function was shown by normalisation of in-vitro T-cell function and successful discontinuation of immunoglobulin supplementation in seven patients with follow-up longer than 1 year, followed by positive antigen-specific response to vaccination. Severe infections fell from 2·38 (95% CI 1·44-3·72) per patient-year of observation (PYO) in the year before gene therapy to 0·31 (0·04-1·11) per PYO in the second year after gene therapy and 0·17 (0·00-0·93) per PYO in the third year after gene therapy. Before gene therapy, platelet counts were lower than 20 × 109 per L in seven of eight patients. At the last follow-up visit, the platelet count had increased to 20-50 × 109 per L in one patient, 50-100 × 109 per L in five patients, and more than 100 × 109 per L in two patients, which resulted in independence from platelet transfusions and absence of severe bleeding events. 27 serious adverse events in six patients occurred after gene therapy, 23 (85%) of which were infectious (pyrexia [five events in three patients], device-related infections, including one case of sepsis [four events in three patients], and gastroenteritis, including one case due to rotavirus [three events in two patients]); these occurred mainly in the first 6 months of follow-up. No adverse reactions to the investigational drug product and no abnormal clonal proliferation or leukaemia were reported after gene therapy. INTERPRETATION: Data from this study show that gene therapy provides a valuable treatment option for patients with severe Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome, particularly for those who do not have a suitable HSPC donor available. FUNDING: Italian Telethon Foundation, GlaxoSmithKline, and Orchard Therapeutics.

Application of six-color flow cytometry for the assessment of dendritic cell responses in whole blood assays.

Analysis of peripheral blood dendritic cells (PBDCs) is increasingly reaching clinical relevance in a wide range of pathologies, in which investigating the capacity of DC subsets to respond adequately to specific stimuli may aid the comprehension of underlying immunopathologic mechanisms. The evaluation of PBDC responses directly challenged in whole blood (WB) samples offers many advantages over other methods that require DC isolation and culture, but it is limited in multiparametric analysis, currently based on 3- or 4-color assays. Therefore, in this study we developed a 6-color assay dedicated to the analysis of PBDC responses upon WB stimulation. We incubated WB samples with ligands to toll-like receptors (TLRs) with a clear-cut distribution on myeloid DCs (mDCs) or plasmacytoid (pDCs) and analyzed DC responses in terms of upregulation of activation/maturation markers, as well as production of a wide range of regulatory cytokines. Four colors were used to gate on mDCs and pDCs that were identified as lineage-/HLA-DR+/CD11c+ and lineage-/HLA-DR+/CD123+, respectively, and two further colors were used to analyze either the surface expression of CD80, CD86, CD40 or CD83, or the intracellular accumulation of IL-12, tumor-necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha, interferon (IFN)-alpha, IL-6, IL-10 or IL-4. With this method, we could directly compare in the same flow cytometric tube the responses of mDCs and pDCs to TLR stimulation, and investigate the reciprocal coexpression of distinct activation markers or regulatory cytokines. We suggest that the 6-color WB assay presented here may represent a novel tool for investigating the complex biology of DCs.

Dynamics of genetically engineered hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells after autologous transplantation in humans.

Hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPC) are endowed with the role of generating and maintaining lifelong the extremely diverse pool of blood cells1. Clinically, transplantation of human HSPC from an allogeneic healthy donor or infusion of autologous gene-corrected HSPC can effectively replenish defective blood cell production caused by congenital or acquired disorders2-9. However, due to methodological and ethical constraints that have limited the study of human HSPC primarily to in vitro assays10 or xenotransplantation models11,12, the in vivo activity of HSPC has to date remained relatively unexplored in humans13-16. Here we report a comprehensive study of the frequencies, dynamics and output of seven HSPC subtypes in humans that was performed by tracking 148,093 individual clones in six patients treated with lentiviral gene therapy using autologous HSPC transplantation and followed for up to 5 years. We discovered that primitive multipotent progenitor and hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) populations have distinct roles during the initial reconstitution after transplant, compared with subsequent steady-state phases. Furthermore, we showed that a fraction of in vitro-activated HSC are resilient and undergo a defined delayed activation period upon transplant. Finally, our data support the concept that early lymphoid-biased progenitors might be capable of long-term survival, such that they can be maintained independently of their continuous production from HSC. Overall, this study provides comprehensive data on HSPC dynamics after autologous transplantation and gene therapy in humans.

Gene therapy in rare diseases: the benefits and challenges of developing a patient-centric registry for Strimvelis in ADA-SCID.

BACKGROUND: Strimvelis (autologous CD34+ cells transduced to express adenosine deaminase [ADA]) is the first ex vivo stem cell gene therapy approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA), indicated as a single treatment for patients with ADA-severe combined immunodeficiency (ADA-SCID) who lack a suitable matched related bone marrow donor. Existing primary immunodeficiency registries are tailored to transplantation outcomes and do not capture the breadth of safety and efficacy endpoints required by the EMA for the long-term monitoring of gene therapies. Furthermore, for extended monitoring of Strimvelis, the young age of children treated, small patient numbers, and broad geographic distribution of patients all increase the risk of loss to follow-up before sufficient data have been collected. Establishing individual investigator sites would be impractical and uneconomical owing to the small number of patients from each location receiving Strimvelis. RESULTS: An observational registry has been established to monitor the safety and effectiveness of Strimvelis in up to 50 patients over a minimum of 15 years. To address the potential challenges highlighted above, data will be collected by a single investigator site at Ospedale San Raffaele (OSR), Milan, Italy, and entered into the registry via a central electronic platform. Patients/families and the patient's local physician will also be able to submit healthcare information directly to the registry using a uniquely designed electronic platform. Data entry will be monitored by a Gene Therapy Registry Centre (funded by GlaxoSmithKline) who will ensure that necessary information is collected and flows between OSR, the patient/family and the patient's local healthcare provider. CONCLUSION: The Strimvelis registry sets a precedent for the safety monitoring of future gene therapies. A unique, patient-focused design has been implemented to address the challenges of long-term follow-up of patients treated with gene therapy for a rare disease. Strategies to ensure data completeness and patient retention in the registry will help fulfil pharmacovigilance requirements. Collaboration with partners is being sought to expand from a treatment registry into a disease registry. Using practical and cost-efficient approaches, the Strimvelis registry is hoped to encourage further innovation in registry design within orphan drug development.

In Vivo Tracking of Human Hematopoiesis Reveals Patterns of Clonal Dynamics during Early and Steady-State Reconstitution Phases.

Hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells (HSPCs) are capable of supporting the lifelong production of blood cells exerting a wide spectrum of functions. Lentiviral vector HSPC gene therapy generates a human hematopoietic system stably marked at the clonal level by vector integration sites (ISs). Using IS analysis, we longitudinally tracked >89,000 clones from 15 distinct bone marrow and peripheral blood lineages purified up to 4 years after transplant in four Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome patients treated with HSPC gene therapy. We measured at the clonal level repopulating waves, populations' sizes and dynamics, activity of distinct HSPC subtypes, contribution of various progenitor classes during the early and late post-transplant phases, and hierarchical relationships among lineages. We discovered that in-vitro-manipulated HSPCs retain the ability to return to latency after transplant and can be physiologically reactivated, sustaining a stable hematopoietic output. This study constitutes in vivo comprehensive tracking in humans of hematopoietic clonal dynamics during the early and late post-transplant phases.