Adjunctive β2-agonist treatment reduces glycogen independently of receptor-mediated acid α-glucosidase uptake in the limb muscles of mice with Pompe disease.

Enzyme or gene replacement therapy with acid α-glucosidase (GAA) has achieved only partial efficacy in Pompe disease. We evaluated the effect of adjunctive clenbuterol treatment on cation-independent mannose-6-phosphate receptor (CI-MPR)-mediated uptake and intracellular trafficking of GAA during muscle-specific GAA expression with an adeno-associated virus (AAV) vector in GAA-knockout (KO) mice. Clenbuterol, which increases expression of CI-MPR in muscle, was administered with the AAV vector. This combination therapy increased latency during rotarod and wirehang testing at 12 wk, in comparison with vector alone. The mean urinary glucose tetrasaccharide (Glc4), a urinary biomarker, was lower in GAA-KO mice following combination therapy, compared with vector alone. Similarly, glycogen content was lower in cardiac and skeletal muscle following 12 wk of combination therapy in heart, quadriceps, diaphragm, and soleus, compared with vector alone. These data suggested that clenbuterol treatment enhanced trafficking of GAA to lysosomes, given that GAA was expressed within myofibers. The integral role of CI-MPR was demonstrated by the lack of effectiveness from clenbuterol in GAA-KO mice that lacked CI-MPR in muscle, where it failed to reverse the high glycogen content of the heart and diaphragm or impaired wirehang performance. However, the glycogen content of skeletal muscle was reduced by the addition of clenbuterol in the absence of CI-MPR, as was lysosomal vacuolation, which correlated with increased AKT signaling. In summary, β2-agonist treatment enhanced CI-MPR-mediated uptake and trafficking of GAA in mice with Pompe disease, and a similarly enhanced benefit might be expected in other lysosomal storage disorders.

Assessment of toxicity and biodistribution of recombinant AAV8 vector-mediated immunomodulatory gene therapy in mice with Pompe disease.

A preclinical safety study was conducted to evaluate the short- and long-term toxicity of a recombinant adeno-associated virus serotype 8 (AAV2/8) vector that has been developed as an immune-modulatory adjunctive therapy to recombinant human acid α-glucosidase (rhGAA, Myozyme) enzyme replacement treatment (ERT) for patients with Pompe disease (AAV2/8-LSPhGAApA). The AAV2/8-LSPhGAApA vector at 1.6 × 10(13) vector particles/kg, after intravenous injection, did not cause significant short- or long-term toxicity. Recruitment of CD4(+) (but not CD8(+)) lymphocytes to the liver was elevated in the vector-dosed male animals at study day (SD) 15, and in group 8 animals at SD 113, in comparison to their respective control animals. Administration of the vector, either prior to or after the one ERT injection, uniformly prevented the hypersensitivity induced by subsequent ERT in males, but not always in female animals. The vector genome was sustained in all tissues through 16-week postdosing, except for in blood with a similar tissue tropism between males and females. Administration of the vector alone, or combined with the ERT, was effective in producing significantly increased GAA activity and consequently decreased glycogen accumulation in multiple tissues, and the urine biomarker, Glc4, was significantly reduced. The efficacy of the vector (or with ERT) was better in males than in females, as demonstrated both by the number of tissues showing significantly effective responses and the extent of response in a given tissue. Given the lack of toxicity for AAV2/8LSPhGAApA, further consideration of clinical translation is warranted in Pompe disease.

Examination of Endogenous Rotund Expression and Function in Developing Drosophila Olfactory System Using CRISPR-Cas9-Mediated Protein Tagging.

The zinc-finger protein Rotund (Rn) plays a critical role in controlling the development of the fly olfactory system. However, little is known about its molecular function in vivo. Here, we added protein tags to the rn locus using CRISPR-Cas9 technology in Drosophila to investigate its subcellular localization and the genes that it regulates . We previously used a reporter construct to show that rn is expressed in a subset of olfactory receptor neuron (ORN) precursors and it is required for the diversification of ORN fates. Here, we show that tagged endogenous Rn protein is functional based on the analysis of ORN phenotypes. Using this method, we also mapped the expression pattern of the endogenous isoform-specific tags in vivo with increased precision. Comparison of the Rn expression pattern from this study with previously published results using GAL4 reporters showed that Rn is mainly present in early steps in antennal disc patterning, but not in pupal stages when ORNs are born. Finally, using chromatin immunoprecipitation, we showed a direct binding of Rotund to a previously identified regulatory element upstream of the bric-a-brac gene locus in the developing antennal disc.

Stress Relaxation for Granular Materials near Jamming under Cyclic Compression.

We have explored isotropically jammed states of semi-2D granular materials through cyclic compression. In each compression cycle, systems of either identical ellipses or bidisperse disks transition between jammed and unjammed states. We determine the evolution of the average pressure P and structure through consecutive jammed states. We observe a transition point ϕ_{m} above which P persists over many cycles; below ϕ_{m}, P relaxes slowly. The relaxation time scale associated with P increases with packing fraction, while the relaxation time scale for collective particle motion remains constant. The collective motion of the ellipses is hindered compared to disks because of the rotational constraints on elliptical particles.

Experimental inhibition of porcupine-mediated Wnt O-acylation attenuates kidney fibrosis.

Activated Wnt signaling is critical in the pathogenesis of renal fibrosis, a final common pathway for most forms of chronic kidney disease. Therapeutic intervention by inhibition of individual Wnts or downstream Wnt/β-catenin signaling has been proposed, but these approaches do not interrupt the functions of all Wnts nor block non-canonical Wnt signaling pathways. Alternatively, an orally bioavailable small molecule, Wnt-C59, blocks the catalytic activity of the Wnt-acyl transferase porcupine, and thereby prevents secretion of all Wnt isoforms. We found that inhibiting porcupine dramatically attenuates kidney fibrosis in the murine unilateral ureteral obstruction model. Wnt-C59 treatment similarly blunts collagen mRNA expression in the obstructed kidney. Consistent with its actions to broadly arrest Wnt signaling, porcupine inhibition reduces expression of Wnt target genes and bolsters nuclear exclusion of β-catenin in the kidney following ureteral obstruction. Importantly, prevention of Wnt secretion by Wnt-C59 blunts expression of inflammatory cytokines in the obstructed kidney that otherwise provoke a positive feedback loop of Wnt expression in collagen-producing fibroblasts and epithelial cells. Thus, therapeutic targeting of porcupine abrogates kidney fibrosis not only by overcoming the redundancy of individual Wnt isoforms but also by preventing upstream cytokine-induced Wnt generation. These findings reveal a novel therapeutic maneuver to protect the kidney from fibrosis by interrupting a pathogenic crosstalk loop between locally generated inflammatory cytokines and the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway.