No abstract

Gaucher disease (GD) is an autosomal recessive lysosomal storage disorder caused by mutations in the glucosidase, beta, acid (GBA) gene that encodes the lysosomal enzyme glucosylceramidase (GCase). GCase deficiency leads to characteristic visceral pathology and, in some patients, lethal neurological manifestations. Here, we report the generation of mouse models with the severe neuronopathic form of GD. To circumvent the lethal skin phenotype observed in several of the previous GCase-deficient animals, we genetically engineered a mouse model with strong reduction in GCase activity in all tissues except the skin. These mice exhibit rapid motor dysfunction associated with severe neurodegeneration and apoptotic cell death within the brain, reminiscent of neuronopathic GD. In addition, we have created a second mouse model, in which GCase deficiency is restricted to neural and glial cell progenitors and progeny. These mice develop similar pathology as the first mouse model, but with a delayed onset and slower disease progression, which indicates that GCase deficiency within microglial cells that are of hematopoietic origin is not the primary determinant of the CNS pathology. These findings also demonstrate that normal microglial cells cannot rescue this neurodegenerative disease. These mouse models have significant implications for the development of therapy for patients with neuronopathic GD.lysosomal storage disorder ͉ glucocerebrosidase deficiency ͉ neurodegeneration ͉ knockout mice ͉ gene therapy

The ribosomal protein S19 (RPS19) is located in the small (40S) subunit and is one of 79 ribosomal proteins. The gene encoding RPS19 is mutated in approximately 25% of patients with Diamond-Blackfan anemia, which is a rare congenital erythroblastopenia. Affected individuals present with decreased numbers or the absence of erythroid precursors in the bone marrow, and associated malformations of various organs are common. We produced C57BL/6J mice with a targeted disruption of murine Rps19 to study its role in erythropoiesis and development. Mice homozygous for the disrupted Rps19 were not identified as early as the blastocyst stage, indicating a lethal effect. In contrast, mice heterozygous for the disrupted Rps19 allele have normal growth and organ development, including that of the hematopoietic system. Our findings indicate that zygotes which are Rps19 ؊/؊ do not form blastocysts, whereas one normal Rps19 allele in C57BL/6J mice is sufficient to maintain normal ribosomal and possibly extraribosomal functions.The ribosomal proteins constitute a major component of cellular proteins and are known to be mandatory for cellular growth. A reduced level of one ribosomal protein is rate limiting for the assembly of ribosomes and may constitute a bottleneck for protein synthesis in tissues with a high proliferative activity. Recently, Draptchinskaia et al. found that the gene encoding ribosomal protein S19 (RPS19) was mutated in 25% of patients with Diamond-Blackfan anemia (DBA) (5). DBA is a rare, congenital, and chronic anemia that is characterized by the absence or decreased numbers of erythroid precursors in the bone marrow but an otherwise normal cellularity (1, 4). Approximately 30% of affected patients with DBA show one or several dysmorphic features including growth retardation, hand and/or limb malformations, urogenital anomalies, and congenital heart defects (1, 2, 10). Clinical expression in DBA is highly variable (14,21), and the role of RPS19 in the pathogenesis of the disease is presently unknown.RPS19 is part of the 40S ribosomal unit and shows a high degree of sequence conservation across mammalian species at the protein level (5). In addition to its implication in erythropoiesis, there are indications that RPS19 has extraribosomal functions.A previous study has shown that a dimer of RPS19 may mediate chemotaxis (13). Free RPS19 has also been shown to interact with fibroblast growth factor 2 (FGF-2), and a possible role for RPS19 in embryonic development has been suggested (17). We hypothesized that an Rps19 null mutant would be deleterious for development and that mice heterozygous for Rps19 may present with hematological abnormalities. To clarify the role of RPS19 in erythropoiesis, we created a null mutation for murine Rps19 by homologous recombination in embryonic stem (ES) cells. The targeted Rps19 was introduced on a C57BL/6J background. We present here the results from our studies of this mouse model. MATERIALS AND METHODSConstruction of the Rps19 targeting vector. An Rps19 intron probe was used t...

Gaucher disease (GD) is a lysosomal storage disorder due to an inherited deficiency in the enzyme glucosylceramidase (GCase) that causes hepatosplenomegaly, cytopenias, and bone disease as key clinical symptoms. Previous mouse models with GCase deficiency have been lethal in the perinatal period or viable without displaying the clinical features of GD. We have generated viable mice with characteristic clinical symptoms of type 1 GD by conditionally deleting GCase exons 9 -11 upon postnatal induction. Both transplantation of WT bone marrow (BM) and gene therapy through retroviral transduction of BM from GD mice prevented development of disease and corrected an already established GD phenotype. The gene therapy approach generated considerably higher GCase activity than transplantation of WT BM. Strikingly, both therapeutic modalities normalized glucosylceramide levels and practically no infiltration of Gaucher cells could be observed in BM, spleen, and liver, demonstrating correction at 5-6 months after treatment. The findings demonstrate the feasibility of gene therapy for type 1 GD in vivo. Our type 1 GD mice will serve as an excellent tool in the continued efforts toward development of safe and efficient cell and gene therapy for type 1 GD.

Diamond-Blackfan anemia (DBA) is a congenital bone marrow failure syndrome characterized by a specific deficiency in erythroid progenitors. Forty percent of the patients are blood transfusion-dependent. Recent reports show that the ribosomal protein S19 (RPS19) gene is mutated in 25% of all patients with DBA. We constructed oncoretroviral vectors containing the RPS19 gene to develop gene therapy for RPS19-deficient DBA. These vectors were used to introduce the RPS19 gene into CD34 ؉ bone marrow (BM) cells from 4 patients with DBA with RPS19 gene mutations. Overexpression of the RPS19 transgene increased the number of erythroid colonies by almost 3-fold. High expression levels of the RPS19 transgene improved erythroid colony-forming ability substantially whereas low expression levels had no effect. Overexpression of RPS19 had no detrimental effect on granulocyte-macrophage colony formation. Therefore, these findings suggest that gene therapy for RPS19-deficient patients with DBA using viral vectors that express the RPS19 gene is feasible. IntroductionDiamond-Blackfan anemia (DBA) is a congenital or early-onset pure red cell aplasia/hypoplasia. The disease is characterized by a moderate-to-severe aregenerative anemia and erythroblastopenia in an otherwise normocellular bone marrow. 1,2 Typically, the disorder may present with severe chronic normochromic, macrocytic anemia, and reticulocytopenia. 3,4 In approximately 30% to 40% of patients, there are associated physical malformations, including prenatal or postnatal growth retardation, hand and thumb malformations, and congenital heart defects. 5,6 Most of the reported cases of DBA are sporadic but 10% to 25% have a positive family history. 7,8 Seventy percent of patients respond initially to corticosteroid treatment, 2,9 but 40% become transfusion-dependent. 9 Allogeneic bone marrow transplantation has been shown to be an effective cure for the disease, which demonstrates that the cause of the disease is intrinsic to the bone marrow. [10][11][12] However, the mainstay of therapy for transfusion-dependent patients is frequent blood transfusions, which lead to iron overload. As a consequence, hemosiderosis is a major cause of death among transfusiondependent patients with DBA. In vitro hematopoietic progenitor culture studies indicate that DBA results from an intrinsic defect in erythroid progenitors, erythroid burst-forming units (BFU-Es) and erythroid colony-forming units (CFU-Es), 5,13 and not from a defect in the bone marrow microenvironment, 14 which is consistent with successful marrow transplantation as a treatment for DBA.Several studies have ruled out a number of candidate genes for DBA, including those encoding interleukin 9, the erythropoietin receptor, stem cell factor (SCF) and its receptor, c-kit. 3,[15][16][17][18] Recently, a balanced translocation (X;19) was identified in a patient with DBA and the translocation breakpoint was shown to disrupt the ribosomal protein S19 (RPS19) gene. 8,19,20 Subsequent analysis of the RPS19 gene revealed mutations i...