The development of gene therapy for diseases of the lung

The development of a successful gene therapy has many stages, including preclinical testing in animal models and proof of principle clinical studies. A variety of diseases affect the lung, which are candidates for gene therapy; this review will mainly focus on the diseases that have attracted the most attention and have therefore yielded the most progress, namely lung cancer and the monogenic disorder cystic fibrosis. Knowledge gained from clinical studies could eventually be applied to more complex lung conditions such as acute respiratory distress syndrome and asthma. In addition, increased gene transfer efficiencies could be obtained by appropriate selection of the gene transfer vector and mode of delivery.Received 8 August 2003; received after revision 10 September 2003; accepted 17 September 2003     

Enhanced heparan sulfate proteoglycan-mediated uptake of cell-penetrating peptide-modified liposomes

Protein transduction domains (PTDs) are used to enhance cellular uptake of drugs, proteins, polynucleotides or liposomes. In this study, functionalized Antennapedia (Antp, aa 43–-58) and HIV Tat (aa 47–57) peptides were coupled to small unilamellar liposomes via thiol-maleimide linkage. Modified liposomes showed higher uptake into a panel of cell lines including tumor and dendritic cells than unmodified control liposomes. Liposome uptake was time and concentration dependent as analyzed by flow cytometry and live-cell microscopy. At least 100 PTD molecules per small unilamellar liposome (100 ± 30 nm) were necessary for efficient translocation into cells. Cellular uptake of PTD-modified liposomes was 15- to 25-fold increased compared to unmodified liposomes and was inhibited by preincubation of liposomes with heparin. Glycosaminoglycan-deficient CHO cells showed dramatically reduced cell association of PTD-modified liposomes, confirming the important role of heparan sulfate proteoglycans in PTD-mediated uptake. Antp-liposomes used as carriers of the cytotoxic drug N⁴-octadecyl-1--D-arabinofuranosylcytosine-(5- 5)-3-C-ethinylcytidine showed a reduction of the IC₅₀ by 70% on B16F1 melanoma cells compared with unmodified liposomes. PTD-functionalized liposomes, particularly Antp-liposomes, represent an interesting novel carrier system for enhanced cell-specific delivery of a large variety of liposome-entrapped molecules.Received 16 April 2004; received after revision 13 May 2004; accepted 25 May 2004     

Green fluorescent protein （GFP） transsenic pig produced by somatic cell nuclear transfer

Transgenic somatic cell nuclear transfer is a very promising route for producing transgenic farm animals. Research on GFP transgenic pigs can provide useful information for breeding transgenic pigs, human disease models and human organ xenotransplantation. In this study, a liposomal transfecUon system was screened and transgenic embryos were reconstructed by nuclear transfer of GFP positive cells into enucleated in vitro matured oocytes. The development of reconstructed embryos both in vitro and in vivo was observed, and GFP expression was determined. The results showed that porcine fe- tal-derived fibroblast cells cultured with 4.0 μL/mL liposome and 1.6 μg/mL plasmid DNA for 6 h resulted in the highest transfecUon rate （3.6%）. The percentage of GFP reconstructed embryos that de- veloped in vitro to the blastocyst stage was 10%. Of those the GFP positive percentage was 48%. Reconstructed transgenic embryos were transferred to 10 recipients. 5 of them were pregnant, and 3 delivered 6 cloned piglets in which 4 piglets were transgenic for the GFP as verified by both GFP protein expression and GFP DNA sequence analysis. The percentage of reconstructed embryos that resulted in cloned piglets was 1.0%; while the percentage of piglets that were transgenic was 0.7%. This is the first group of transgenic cloned pigs born in China, marking a great progress in Chinese transgenic cloned pig research.