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Gene Editing and mRNA-Based Therapy: Two Complementary Therapeutic Approaches for the Treatment of Patients with Xmen Disease

J. Brault, Ezekiel A Bello, R. Meis, Taylor Liu, Sherry M. Koontz, K. Dowdell, Lin-Hong Li, C. Allen et al.

Blood, 2019

Abstract

Introduction

'X-linked immunodeficiency with magnesium defect, Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infection, and neoplasia' (XMEN) disease is a primary immunodeficiency disease caused by loss-of-function mutations in the MAGT1 gene encoding for the magnesium transporter 1. This leads to the absence of expression of the "Natural-Killer Group 2, member D" (NKG2D) receptor in natural killer (NK) and CD8+ T cells, which is essential for their antiviral and antitumoral cytotoxic activity. In consequence, XMEN patients develop chronic EBV infections and EBV-related lymphoproliferative disorders. Allogeneic bone marrow transplant has been associated with significant mortality, and there are no other effective treatments. In that context, we aimed at developing two complementary approaches to treat XMEN patients: 1) Adoptive transfer of XMEN T/NK cells corrected by transient mRNA therapy or longer-lasting gene editing therapy in order to control infections, and 2) Transplantation of gene-edited CD34+ cells in order to permanently restore production of functional immune cells.

Material and methods

CD34+ cells and PBMCs were collected from XMEN patients and healthy donors (HD) (NIH Protocol 94-I-073). For mRNA therapy, we expanded T cells with anti-CD3/anti-CD28 beads in RPMI + 10% serum supplemented with 200 IU/mL IL2 for 5-7 days and NK cells with 100 IU/mL IL2 and 10 ng/mL IL15 in culture with K562-mb15-41BBL for 10-15 days. Both XMEN T and NK cells were electroporated (EP) with MAGT1 mRNA…

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