Progress and prospects: Foamy virus vectors enter a new age

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Gene Therapy (2010) 17, 1423–1429
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REVIEW
Progress and prospects: Foamy virus vectors enter
a new age
O Erlwein and MO McClure
Section of Infectious Diseases, Jefferiss Research Trust Laboratories, Imperial College London, London, UK

Foamy viruses, distantly related to the major subfamily              efficient transduction of progenitor cells and an integration
of Retroviruses, Orthoretroviruses that include oncoviruses          profile less likely to induce insertional mutagenesis, make
(for example, murine leukemia virus (MLV)) and lentiviruses          these viruses attractive as vectors. Long-term reversal of
(human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)), are endemic in                 disease phenotype in dogs with the genetic defect, leukocyte
mammalian species, but not in human populations. Humans              adhesion deficiency, by foamy virus vector therapy strength-
infected by accidental or occupational exposure remain well.         ens the case for their clinical exploitation.
The virus is not transmitted to others, nor is it associated with    Gene Therapy (2010) 17, 1423–1429; doi:10.1038/gt.2010.95;
any disease. These features added to its broad host range,           published online 15 July 2010

Keywords: foamy virus; spumaretrovirus; retroviral vector

                                                               In brief
 Progress                                                                 Prospects
                                                                     Novel approaches to areas that have hitherto proved
  Foamy virus infection in animals and humans does                   to be technically challenging, such as:
   not cause disease.                                                producing packaging cell lines.
  Foamy virus replication is different from that of other           defining the cellular receptor.
   retroviruses.                                                     increasing vector titre further.
  Foamy virus integrates into the host cell in typical              Reversal of a single gene defect in a canine model
   retrovirus manner.                                                 may lead to clinical trial of a similar clinical condition
  Foamy viruses have untapped potential as safe                      in humans.
   vectors.                                                          Reversal of further single-gene defects.
  Genes are delivered by foamy virus vectors in vivo.
  Foamy virus vectors cure dogs of a genetic disease.

                                                                     respective foamy virus and in captivity as many as 100%
Foamy virus infection in animals and                                 can test positive. When Hahn’s group looked for
humans does not cause disease                                        evidence of foamy virus infection in wild equatorial
                                                                     African chimpanzees by testing for antibody and nucleic
Foamy viruses are the only members of the Spumare-
                                                                     acid in fecal samples, they confirmed a prevalence of
troviruses, one of two families of the Retroviridae, the
                                                                     between 44 and 100%.2 Morozov et al.3 found that 12
other and much larger family being the Orthoretro-
                                                                     of 14 free living chimpanzees in Tai National Park
viruses (ORV). From those, the viral vectors that have
                                                                     (Côte d’Ivoir) were Semliki forest virus (SFV) infected.
been most exploited in trials are murine leukemia virus
                                                                     The sensitive assays used by Jones-Engel et al.4 found,
(MLV) (a gammaretrovirus) and human immunodefi-
                                                                     not only that more than 92% of wild non-human
ciency virus (HIV-1) and EIAV (both lentiviruses). The
                                                                     primates were SFV positive in Thailand but that some
wild-type viruses from which these vectors are derived
                                                                     had already been seroconverted by the age of 3. Engel
all cause disease, whereas foamy viruses do not. In the
                                                                     et al.5 reported 88% of Gibraltar’s macaques to be SFV
infected host, active foamy virus replication seems to be
                                                                     positive. Thus, foamy virus infection is widespread in
restricted to the oral mucosa,1 suggesting that transmis-
                                                                     non-human primates.
sion in animals occurs by bites and other wounds.
                                                                        Superinfection of animals with different foamy virus
In the wild, monkeys are commonly infected with their
                                                                     strains is possible, as shown by inter-species transmis-
                                                                     sion of SFV in chimpanzees that prey on colobus
Correspondence: Professor MO McClure, Section of Infectious          monkeys. In addition to their own strain, the chimpan-
Diseases, Jefferiss Research Trust Laboratories, Imperial College
London, St Mary’s Campus, Norfolk Place, London W2 1PG, UK.
                                                                     zees were also infected with SFV specific for colobus
E-mail: m.mcclure@imperial.ac.uk                                     monkeys.6 Despite having been described in a variety of
Received 16 May 2009; revised 28 April 2010; accepted 28 April       mammalian species, including non-human primates,
2010; published online 15 July 2010                                  cats, cows and horses, sea lions and hamsters, in which
Foamy virus vectors enter a new age
                                                       O Erlwein and MO McClure
1424
         they cause life-long persistent infections and, despite                    before budding from the infected cell. Thus, as about 20%
         intensive searching, no natural reservoir for foamy virus                  of virions contain infectious DNA, foamy viruses can be
         in humans has ever been documented. Accidental zoonotic                    viewed as DNA viruses that replicate by an RNA
         infections, however, are not unknown for people in close                   intermediate, rather than hepadnaviruses. The full length
         contact with non-human primates, such as animal                            of the single-stranded DNA genome is 13 Kb, longer than
         handlers and bush meat traders.7 Investigating prototype                   that of MLV (8 kb) or HIV-1 (9 Kb) and, similar to other
         foamy virus (PFV) infection in Asians, Jones-Engels et al.8                complex retroviruses, carries additional open reading
         identified 2.6% positivity (8 out of 305). The virus persists              frames in the 30 region of the genome, giving rise to
         in peripheral blood lymphocytes for over 20 years,                         accessory proteins, in this case, Tas (the transcriptional
         suggesting a capability for long-term gene expression in                   transactivator essential for replication) and, by virtue of
         the case of PFV-derived vectors. Infected humans do not                    a splicing event, Bet, an accessory protein abundantly
         transmit the virus horizontally. However, when blood of                    produced in the infected cell. Unusually, both are
         an SFV-infected monkey was transfused into an uninfected                   transcribed from an internal promoter, located in the
         animal, molecular evidence of infection became obvious                     env open reading frame, rather than from the promoter
         after 8 weeks, with seroconversion 1 week later, confirm-                  in the LTR. The Bet protein, disposable for replication
         ing that foamy viruses can be transmitted through blood                    in vitro, is nonetheless expressed in abundance in the
         products.9 In marked contrast to the cytopathic effect                     infected cell. Its exact function is not clear, although there
         induced in vitro (it is the infection-induced vacuolation                  is a suggestion that it functions in a manner similar to the
         that gives cells their ‘foamy’ appearance), no pathology                   HIV-1 Vif protein in antagonizing cellular APOBEC3
         has been assigned to foamy virus infection in any host.                    proteins.10 It is interesting that Trim-5-alpha can also
         Early papers attempting to link infection with a variety of                restrict foamy viruses by sequences in the N-terminal
         disease states have not withstood the test of time.                        half of Gag.11
         Although it is true to say that the effect of foamy virus                     As for the ORVs, the LTRs contain cis-acting regulatory
         infection in humans under conditions of immunosuppres-                     elements for viral protein expression. The internal
         sion is not known, it is known that primates and cats                      promoter in env has some basal activity, resulting in the
         dually infected with immunodeficiency viruses and foamy                    expression of the accessory proteins, Tas and Bet. Tas, in
         viruses have no different a profile from those that are                    turn, is a DNA-binding transcriptional activator that
         foamy virus free. There is no evidence from many studies                   enhances gene expression from the internal promoter but
         carried out over the last decade in both animals and                       also from the otherwise silent promoter in the U3 region,
         humans that foamy virus infection causes any clinical                      leading to the expression of the structural proteins. This
         condition or deleterious effects.                                          way, PFV can control gene expression in a temporal
                                                                                    manner, something ORVs, such as HIV-1, achieve
                                                                                    through alternative splicing. To express their structural
         Foamy virus replication is different from                                  proteins, ORVs first generate Gag–Pol fusion proteins
                                                                                    that are subsequently cleaved into Gag and Pol that can
         that of other retroviruses                                                 be further processed. The Gag–Pol fusion proteins also
         Foamy viruses have a typical retrovirus morphology                         provide a means by which the ORVs encapsidate their
         with the distinguishing feature of extra long (15 nm)                      Pol protein into virions, as Gag self-assembles. For foamy
         spikes by which they gain entry to a wide variety of cell                  viruses, Pol is expressed independently from Gag from
         types in vitro. Indeed, it is challenging to find a cell line              its own spliced mRNA. A fraction of the PFV Gag
         refractory to PFV infection, something that has consis-                    proteins is processed by cleaving a 3-kDa peptide from
         tently hampered identification of their cellular receptor.                 the C-terminus, resulting in a double band of about
         However, it is known that viruses enter the cell at the low                71/68 kDa in size. This cleavage is essential for reverse
         pH of the late endosome and travel along the micro-                        transcription. However, no analogous proteins to matrix,
         tubules towards the microtubule-organizing center. The                     nucleocapsid or capsid is found in mature PFV virions.
         first molecularly cloned isolate originated from a cell                    As the foamy virus Pol is expressed independently from
         culture of a nasopharyngeal carcinoma patient and was                      Gag and no Gag–Pol fusion protein is made, this poses
         designated, the human spumaretrovirus or human                             the problem of incorporating Pol into the virion. It is
         foamy virus. Later it became clear that this was a                         thought that regions in cis-acting sequences present on
         chimpanzee isolate, and human foamy virus is now                           viral RNA that are involved in RNA encapsidation can
         considered to have resulted from cross-species transmis-                   also bind to Pol. Recently, however, it was shown that
         sion. It remains the most studied of the foamy viruses                     Gag, too, contains C-terminal determinants that facilitate
         and has now been designated the PFV.                                       encapsidation of Pol into the virions.12 This independent
            Foamy virus genomes share overall organizational                        expression of Pol from a spliced mRNA may be an
         similarity with all complex retroviruses; the open read-                   advantage for vector development, as a vector produced
         ing frames encode three standard retroviral structural                     from three separate plasmids encoding each of the
         proteins for the core, enzymes of replication and virus                    structural genes is less likely to undergo recombination.
         envelope (Gag, Pol and Env, respectively), as well as                      Foamy virus capsids are restricted to the cytoplasm in
         accessory viral proteins, all of which are flanked by long                 the absence of its cognate envelope protein and, thus,
         terminal repeat (LTR) sequences (Figure 1). The 50 end                     particles are not released into the supernatant in the
         dimerization signal suggests that the pre-genomic single-                  absence of it or in the provision of a different envelope.
         stranded diploid RNA is packaged into the virion, but                      This points to a specific interaction between Gag and its
         whereas the RNA is characteristically reverse-transcribed                  cognate Env, making it difficult to pseudotype foamy
         into DNA, before it is integrated into the host genome,                    virus capsids with Env proteins of other viruses without
         the process can also occur late in the viral life cycle, just              loss of infectivity. The foamy virus replication cycle

Gene Therapy
Foamy virus vectors enter a new age
                                                                               O Erlwein and MO McClure
                                                                                                                                                        1425
                        Promoter                                                                          IP

                                                           pol                                                 orf-1
                       U3 R U5        gag                                                env                           orf-2   U3 R U5

                             DLS
                             ===
                             CASI                                 CASII
                                                                                                               tas

                                                                                                                         bet

Figure 1 The PFV genome. Genomic organization of PFV with highlighted characteristics relevant to vector generation. Two sequences
necessary for vector transduction are indicated, the cis-acting sequences, CasI and CasII. These sequences are important for encapsidation,
they carry the dimer linkage structure (DLS), and they also interact with the Pol protein. In addition to the promoter in the LTR, there is an
internal promoter (IP) in the Env ORF, which drives the expression of the accessory proteins Tas and Bet.

                                                                                                                                  Budding and
                                                          Cell to cell transfer                                                   release

                                                                 Golgi
                                                                                                          Late RT
                                                                 apparatus

                                 Microtubules                      ER

                  Receptor

                                    Early                   Assembly
                                    RT
                                                   Uncoating
                                      MTOC
                                                                 Integration

                                                  PIC              Transcription
                                                                                        Nucleus

Figure 2 PFV replication cycle. PFV attaches to an unknown cellular receptor, thereafter the viral core travels along microtubules towards
the microtubule-organizing centre and early reverse transcription occurs. The PFV protease cleaves the Gag protein and triggers disassembly
of the core at the microtubule-organizing center. Following integration into the host genome, viral mRNAs and proteins are produced and the
PFV virions assemble in the cytoplasm. An endoplasmic reticulum (ER) retrieval signal targets Env to the ER and without its cognate Env, no
PFV budding occurs. Late reverse transcription can take place before viral budding, resulting in about 20% of virions containing infectious
DNA. (Figure kindly provided by Dr Gillian Wills)

(shown in Figure 2) bears resemblance to that of the                           over recent years and genome-wide analysis of integra-
hepadnaviruses.13                                                              tion has shown that insertion into the host genome is not
                                                                               as random an event as was once thought, but influenced
                                                                               by target DNA sequences. Lentiviruses, such as HIV-1,
Foamy virus integrates into the host cell in typical                           strongly favour integration into active transcription
retrovirus manner                                                              units. However, the fact that MLV targets transcription
Integration of the proviral DNA into the host genome is                        start sites and CpG islands, in part explains the
an essential part of the life cycle of every retrovirus and                    leukaemia that developed subsequent to the gene
foamy viruses, despite being uniquely different in many                        therapy trial for severe combined immunodeficiency-
respects, are no exception to this. The integration process                    X1, when the MLV vector integrated near the proto-
for retroviruses has been the subject of several studies                       oncogenes, LMO2 and MDS/Evi1.14 For foamy viruses, a

                                                                                                                                                Gene Therapy
Foamy virus vectors enter a new age
                                                      O Erlwein and MO McClure
1426
         few reports describe the systematic investigation of                      be silenced by host factors, switching off continuous
         foamy virus integration sites in cellular DNA. In one                     expression. This, however, has not occurred in animal
         study, a total of 2829 different insertion events in human                models transplanted for over two years with PFV
         CD34+ cells and unselected human fibroblasts were                         vectors.24
         investigated. Foamy virus integrations could be found on
         all human chromosomes with clusters and gaps, but
         overall did not show a preference for integration within                  Foamy viruses have untapped potential as
         genes, unlike MLV or HIV. There was one hotspot (that is,
         four or more integrants within a 50 kb region) 470 kb
                                                                                   safe vectors
         from the Evi1 locus, but the relevance of this finding                    With the definition of sequences necessary for packaging
         with respect to activation of this locus is not clear. For                and regulation of gene expression it became possible to
         the LMO2 gene activated in MLV trials, foamy virus                        generate foamy virus vectors with minimal cis-acting
         integration was found in 700 kb distance. A similar                       sequences, that were replication defective, self inactivat-
         pattern was found in a second study, where 628                            ing and could carry transgenes of up to 9.2 kb in length.
         integration sites in human 293 cells were mapped. These                   With no packaging cell line available, strategies to
         authors described the direct hit of seven proto-oncogenes                 produce foamy virus vectors depend on transient
         (for example, familial breast/ovarian cancer gene 2,                      co-transfection of up to three individual expression
         BRCA, or epidermal growth factor receptor) and 108                        cassettes for the structural proteins Gag, Pol and Env
         events if analyzed for the insertion within a distance of                 and a plasmid encoding the transgene.25 This minimizes
         0.5 Mb from an oncogene. In a canine in vivo model                        the generation of replication-competent PFV through
         described recently,15 no foamy virus vector integration                   recombination, improving safety. Replication-defective
         sites were found near the LMO2 oncogene and two were                      foamy virus vectors can now be produced consistently at
         present in the MDS1-EviI gene locus. This was signi-                      titres of 107 ml after concentration, sufficient for ex vivo
         ficantly less than for gammaretroviral vectors. In                        gene therapy applications, and without detectable helper
         ontological studies, the authors found only one class of                  virus. Similar self-inactivating feline foamy virus virus
         genes, involved with catabolism, to be overrepresented                    vectors have been produced that are capable of long-
         for insertion of the PFV vector. Again, the relevance                     term transduction in cell lines.23 Foamy virus vectors are
         of this finding is unclear. Taken together, a comparison                  more efficient than gammaretroviral vectors in transdu-
         of lentivirus and foamy virus integration16 reveals that                  cing quiescent cells, but unlike lentiviral vectors, they fail
         lentiviruses integrate preferentially into units of active                to transduce truly resting cells in which foamy viruses
         transcription and that, although all retrovirus vectors                   accumulate close to the centrosome, but uncoating is
         will integrate close to proto-oncogenes, PFV does not                     impaired. On stimulation, however, disassembly and
         have a preference for sites within genes, but only a                      viral infection proceeds, indicating that uncoating is the
         modest preference for transcription start sites and for                   rate-limiting step for productive foamy virus infection of
         CpG islands When the detailed mechanism of PFV                            growth-arrested cells.26 For example, quiescent human
         integration is known, this may offer a further possible                   CD34+ progenitor cells can be transduced by PFV and
         advantage over ORVs. The 3D structure of the PFV                          HIV vectors at a frequency of 40–50%, when transduction
         integrase (IN) core domain has recently been published                    was assayed when cells were allowed to cycle. Under
         and in vitro characterization of the enzyme has high-                     these conditions, however, transduction by MLV was
         lighted the usefuleness of the PFV integrase to detailed                  only about 5%.
         structural studies of integration. Although the PFV IN                       Vectors derived from PFV have been used to deliver
         has little sequence homology to the HIV IN, it was still                  transgenes efficiently and transduce a diverse range of
         sensitive to lentiviral strand transfer inhibitors, suggest-              cells, including hematopoietic cells in vitro. For example,
         ing that these reagents target highly conserved regions of                Sun et al.27 inhibited hepatitis B virus replication by small
         IN–DNA complexes17 The mechanism of the IN–DNA                            interfering RNAs delivered by PFV vectors. Taylor et al.28
         recognition event is emerging as the functional LTR                       used PFV vectors to produce anti-HIV-1 transgenes and
         nucleotides involved become known18 and the solubility                    block virus replication in primary macrophage derived
         and catalytic efficiency of the PFV IN is established.19                  from transduced peripheral blood CD34 cells and
            No integrating vector system can be regarded as                        lymphoid cell lines. Rothenaigner et al.29 succeeded in
         completely ‘safe’ based on its integration profile, and                   transducing human neural progenitor cells by PFV
         safeguards are needed. To this end, an assay capable of                   vectors, leading to gene expression in a differentiation-
         detecting activation of neighbouring genes could be                       dependent manner, which might prove to be important
         useful.20,21 The potential risk of transformation might                   in targeting neural cells that differentiate in different
         be reduced by introducing physiological promoters to                      areas of the brain. Gharwan et al (2007)30 described the
         replace native or other retroviral promoters.22 There is                  efficient transduction (14–48%) of human and macaque
         an additional risk with ORV vectors of a read-through                     embryonic stem cells when infected with a low multi-
         into host sequences, resulting in fusion proteins with                    plicity of infection (MOI ¼ 1). Successful transduction of
         unforeseen characteristics, if the termination of transcrip-              the non-human primate cells indicates that foamy virus
         tion at the 30 end of the viral genome is not tightly                     vectors are not encountering post-entry blocks in
         controlled. In feline foamy virus the read-through from                   monkey cells, as was found for lentiviral vectors. In
         the 30 LTR into neighbouring genes is a more stringent                    earlier experiments, designed to compare different viral
         process, resulting in termination at the 30 end23 and this                vectors and using non-obese diabetic/severe combined
         may hold for PFV as discussed by Rethwilm.13 Once                         immunodeficiency mice repopulating human CD34+
         integration is complete, subsequent gene expression                       cord blood, gene transfer levels of up to 84% had been
         from the integrated genes transported by the vector can                   shown for foamy virus vectors, at least as efficiently as

Gene Therapy
Foamy virus vectors enter a new age
                                                                O Erlwein and MO McClure
                                                                                                                                 1427
lentiviral vectors and more efficiently than gammaretro-        6 weeks, but re-inoculation with vector was necessary to
viral vectors. However, the transition from in vitro to         maintain the restored phenotype for another 6–7 weeks,
in vivo success has not been seamless, one example              possibly due to genetic silencing. Si et al.34 reported on
of which is highlighted.                                        the long-term repopulating activity of Fanconi anaemia
                                                                Fancc/ stem cells in mice after exposure to foamy
                                                                virus vector, and showed repopulation of primary and
Genes delivered by foamy virus vectors                          secondary recipients. This study successfully used a
                                                                short (8–14 h) vector exposure time without pre-stimula-
in vivo                                                         tion, compared with the 4-day gammaretroviral vector
Chronic granulomatosis disease is a diverse group of            protocol that perpetuates a time-dependent increase in
hereditory diseases caused most commonly by a defect            apoptosis and a reduction in myeloid progenitors and
in the phagocyte nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide              repopulating ability. Integrated retroviral vectors may
phosphate oxidase (PHOX). The affected gene on the              change the activity of certain genes, not just by directly
X chromosome codes for the gp91 protein, gp91-PHOX.             inserting into these genes, but also by integration in close
When Sca1+ haematopoeitic stem cells (HSCs) isolated            proximity to them. Hendrie et al.20 developed a plasmid-
from gene-deficient mice are transduced by PFV vector           based assay to detect activation of a reporter gene by
carrying the PHOX transgene, 40–50% of the cells were           inserted proviral vectors based on HIV, MLV and FV. In
transduced, a success rate similar to that achieved by          this setting, PFV vectors had a lower propensity to
lentiviral vectors. However, replacing the transduced           activate the reporter gene than vectors based on HIV or
haematopoeitic stem cells in gp91 PHOX-deficient                gammaretrovirus, indicating that PFV vectors may be
mice was unsuccessful both in our own laboratory and            safer in terms of failing to trans-activate neighbouring
in those of others. This was possibly due to either             proto-oncogenes.
insufficient vector titre, viability of transfused cells
or toxicity when the vector was concentrated. However,
in an encouraging single experiment, CD34+ cells                Foamy virus vector cure dogs of a genetic
transduced with PFV vector containing an enhanced
green fluorescent protein (EGFP) expression cassette
                                                                disease
we found that 15–20% of CD34+ cells expressed the               The progression of foamy virus vectors towards the goal
marker 6 weeks after engrafting them into a non-obese           of therapeutic exploitation will owe much to Russell’s
diabetic/severe combined immunodeficiency mouse.                ground-breaking work of the last few years that has
   Since those problematic early experiments, a number          provided the proof of principle needed pour encourager les
of more successful in vivo applications have been               autres to consider seriously the therapeutic potential
reported. When bone marrow cells, transduced with               of these vectors. In the first place, his group showed
PFV vector expressing the DNA repair protein                    that when CD34+ cells fractionated from PBMCs were
O6-methylguanine DNA methyltransferase were engrafted           transduced by foamy virus vectors expressing an EGFP
into mice, complete myeloablative therapy caused death          marker gene and intravenously infused into two dogs,
in a proportion of animals. However, mice treated with a        the dogs maintained long-term transgene expression of
sub-myeloablative therapy survived, and up to 55% of            more than 450 days and 650 days, respectively, in all cells
them expressed O6-methylguanine DNA methyltransfer-             of haematopoietic lineage. Approximately 19% of cells
ase in 50% of the progeny bone marrow cells for at least        expressed the marker gene.24 When foamy and lentiviral
one year after transplantation.31 The fact that foamy           vectors were compared in two dogs for their ability to
virus-mediated gene expression in quiescent stem cells is       transduce long-term haematopoietic repopulating canine
only possible when the cells are subsequently stimulated        cells in vivo, both dogs showed rapid neutrophil and
to divide raised questions about how effective PFV              multi-lineage engraftment of transduced cells and a
vectors might be in post-mitotic tissue, such as the brain.     similar level of transgene expression for more than
Caprariello et al.32 addressed this by comparing equal          700 days after engraftment.35 In one dog the transduction
titres of foamy and lentiviral vectors in vivo and found        efficiency of the foamy virus vector was 4.5 and 4.7% for
that foamy virus vectors were significantly better at           lymphocytes and granulocytes, respectively. For the
transducing brain parenchyma than the lentiviruses. One         lentivirus vector, initial transduction efficiency was
week after transduction, the PFV transduced area                higher (9.5% in lymphocytes and 9.3% in granulocytes),
measured 20.5 mm3 versus 1.17 mm3 for the lentiviral            but by day 939 after transplantation had dropped to
vector. However, after 8 weeks, the transduced volume           levels of the foamy virus vector. For the second dog it
of the brain was reduced to 0.521 mm3 and 0.367 mm3             was found that both vectors transduced lymphocytes
for the PFV vector and the lentiviral vector, respectively.     and granulocytes at a similar rate of about 2% each.
The authors suggested that there was a transient phase of       However, the piece de resistance was the reversal of
virus entry and gene expression but a lack of permanent         disease phenotype by PFV-mediated gene transfer to
integration for the foamy virus vector resulting in only        repopulating cells in a canine model. Canine leukocyte
2.5% of the initially transduced volume maintained. By          adhesion deficiency is a rare autosomal recessive condi-
comparison, 31.6% of the volume transduced with the             tion affecting Irish setters and similar to leukocyte
lentiviral vector maintained long-term expression. Liu          adhesion deficiency in humans. A missense mutation in
et al.33 were of a similar opinion after injecting PFV vector   the beta-2 integrin subunit gene ITGB2 (CD18) resulting
expressing glutamic acid decarboxylase into dorsal              in a cysteine to serine change at position 36 of the CD18
root ganglion neuronal cells to attenuate below-injury          subunit of leukocyte adhesion proteins, prevents leuko-
level central neuropathic pain, after spinal cord injury.       cyte surface expression of the CD11/Cd18 complex.
Symptoms were reversed after 7 days, reversal lasted for        Cell–cell adhesion events are consequently disrupted

                                                                                                                         Gene Therapy
Foamy virus vectors enter a new age
                                                     O Erlwein and MO McClure
1428
         and granulocytic dysfunction ensues. Dogs with this                      References
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         canine CD18 gene corrected the disease state in four out                  2 Liu W, Worobey M, Li Y, Keele BF, Bibollet-Ruche F, Guo Y et al.
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         dividing cells without previous stimulation and cyto-                       simian foamy viruses in Asia. Emerg Infect Dis 2008; 14:
         toxic proteins at high concentrations, which has curtailed                  1200–1208.
         the production of concentrated vector and has possibly                    9 Brooks JI, Merks HW, Fournier J, Boneva RS, Sandstrom PA.
         been responsible for low engraftment. However, their                        Characterization of blood-borne transmission of simian foamy
         advantages would seem to outweigh their current                             virus. Transfusion 2007; 47: 162–170.
         disadvantages and their development since the first                      10 Perkovic M, Schmidt S, Marino D, Russell RA, Stauch B,
         replication-defective vector less than two decades ago                      Hofmann H et al. Species-specific inhibition of APOBEC3C by
         has been staggering, given the handful of research                          the prototype foamy virus protein bet. J Biol Chem 2009; 284:
         groups world wide dedicated to their investigation. In                      5819–5826.
         particular, their safety record and enhanced transduction                11 Yap MW, Lindemann D, Stanke N, Reh J, Westphal D,
         of haematopoietic, neuronal and mesenchymal13 pro-                          Hanenberg H et al. Restriction of foamy viruses by primate
         genitor cells bodes well for future clinical exploitation.                  Trim5alpha. J Virol 2008; 82: 5429–5439.
         There is no doubt that the work from Russell’s laboratory                12 Lee EG, Linial ML. The C terminus of foamy retrovirus Gag
                                                                                     contains determinants for encapsidation of Pol protein into
         showing that animals can be cured of a genetic defect
                                                                                     virions. J Virol 2008; 82: 10803–10810.
         using gene therapy based on foamy virus vectors has
                                                                                  13 Rethwilm A. Foamy virus vectors: an awaited alternative to
         given a much needed boost to the field. Other labora-                       gammaretro- and lentiviral vectors. Curr Gene Ther 2007; 7:
         tories will now be encouraged to put effort into                            261–271.
         addressing the challenging questions of foamy virus                      14 Hacein-Bey-Abina S, Garrigue A, Wang GP, Soulier J, Lim A,
         biology knowing that clinical exploitation is an achiev-                    Morillon E et al. Insertional oncogenesis in 4 patients after
         able goal. Over the next couple of years, we can expect a                   retrovirus-mediated gene therapy of SCID-X1. J Clin Invest 2008;
         two-pronged approach to foamy virus vector develop-                         118: 3132–3142.
         ment. In the first place, given their safety record and                  15 Bauer Jr TR, Allen JM, Hai M, Tuschong LM, Khan IF, Olson EM
         given the similarities between canine leukocyte adhesion                    et al. Successful treatment of canine leukocyte adhesion
         deficiency and the human disease, it would not be                           deficiency by foamy virus vectors. Nat Med 2008; 14: 93–97.
         surprising to see extrapolation from the canine studies                  16 Beard BC, Keyser KA, Trobridge GD, Peterson LJ, Miller DG,
         into clinical trials. It remains to be seen whether vector                  Jacobs M et al. Unique integration profiles in a canine model of
         titres and the lack of a packaging cell line will be                        long-term repopulating cells transduced with gammaretrovirus,
         limiting. Simultaneously, a number of laboratories, world                   lentivirus, or foamy virus. Hum Gene Ther 2007; 18: 423–434.
         –wide, are working towards a greater understanding of                    17 Valkov E, Gupta SS, Hare S, Helander A, Roversi P, McClure M
         foamy virus biology that is likely to overcome both                         et al. Functional and structural characterization of the integrase
         disadvantages.                                                              from the prototype foamy virus. Nucleic Acids Res 2009; 37:
                                                                                     243–255.
                                                                                  18 Kang SY, Ahn DG, Lee C, Lee YS, Shin CG. Functional
                                                                                     nucleotides of U5 LTR determining substrate specificity of
         Conflict of interest                                                        prototype foamy virus integrase. J Microbiol Biotechnol 2008; 18:
         The authors declare no conflict of interest.                                1044–1049.

Gene Therapy
Foamy virus vectors enter a new age
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   A specific DNA-binding mode revealed by an enzymatically                     efficiently block HIV-1 replication. Mol Ther 2008; 16: 46–51.
   labeled integrase. J Biol Chem 2008; 10: 27838–27849.                     29 Rothenaigner I, Kramer S, Meggendorfer M, Rethwilm A,
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22 Zychlinski D, Schambach A, Modlich U, Maetzig T, Meyer J,                 31 Cai S, Ernstberger A, Wang H, Bailey BJ, Hartwell JR, Sinn AL
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   Risk of Integrating Gene Vectors. Mol Ther 2008; 4: 718–725.                 low multiplicity-of-infection with a foamy viral MGMT(P140K)
23 Bastone P, Romen F, Liu W, Wirtz R, Koch U, Josephson N et al.               vector. Exp Hematol 2008; 36: 283–292.
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   cis-acting sequences. J Gen Virol 2009; 90: 481–487.                         Overnight transduction with foamy viral vectors restores the
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                                                                                                                                                Gene Therapy
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