Increased efficiency of retroviral-mediated gene transfer and expression in primate bone marrow progenitors after 5-fluorouracil-induced hematopoietic suppression and recovery.

To define conditions for improved efficiency of retroviral-mediated gene transfer and expression in primate progenitor cells, four rhesus monkeys were treated with a 200 mg/kg intravenous bolus of 5-fluorouracil (5-FU). The kinetics of hematopoietic suppression and recovery were assessed in peripheral blood, bone marrow mononuclear cells, and bone marrow cells fractionated in an albumin density gradient. Bone marrow mononuclear cells were transduced with N2, a retroviral vector carrying the bacterial neomycin phosphotransferase gene (NPT), which confers resistance to the otherwise toxic neomycin analogue, G418. Circulating colony-forming units-granulocyte-macrophage (CFU-GM) disappeared at 2 days. CFU-GM, transducible CFU-GM, CD34+ cells, and the percent of cells in cycle decreased at 3 days in unfractionated bone marrow cells and in a light density population known to be enriched for these progenitors and for stem cells. NPT activity in the light-density fraction, marginally detectable before treatment, disappeared at 3 days as well. At day 7 the CFU-GM plating efficiency, the CD34+ cell content, and the percentage of cells in cell cycle began to increase in the light-density fraction. The NPT assay became faintly positive again but the CFU-GM were not yet transducible, implying that it was an earlier progenitor population that was dividing and differentiating. By day 15, there was a marked rebound in all of the progenitors measured, and transduction efficiency assessed by G418R CFU-GM and NPT assay rebounded to several times pretreatment levels. The data suggest that CFU-GM are optimally transduced at 15 days but that earlier progenitors are more likely cycling and transducible before 5 days, a time when a gene transfer experiment would probably have the best chance to succeed.     

Induction of HIV-specific CTL and antibody responses in mice using retroviral vector-transduced cells

Recombinant retroviral vectors can efficiently transduce and express foreign genes in mammalian cells. We have examined the utility of retroviral vector-mediated gene transfer to deliver genes which encode human immunodeficiency virus type I (HIV) antigens capable of stimulating specific immune responses. Murine fibroblast cell lines were transduced with a nonreplicating murine retroviral vector carrying the gene encoding the HIV-IIIB envelope protein and were shown to express the gp160/120 protein. Mice immunized with syngeneic vector-transduced cells developed CD8+, class I major histocompatibility complex (MHC)-restricted cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) specific for targets expressing the HIV envelope protein. The CTL also exhibited lytic activity on target cells coated with synthetic peptides derived from the gp120 V3 hypervariable region of both the HIV-IIIB and HIV(MN) isolates. Following adoptive transfer in a murine tumor model, these CTL were shown to be effective in vivo by their ability to eliminate established tumor cells expressing the HIV protein. Vector-transduced syngeneic cells were also capable of eliciting HIV envelope-specific antibody responses in immunized mice. Sera obtained from these mice were found to bind to the HIV-IIIB gp160 protein as well as a peptide-defined neutralizing antibody epitope contained within the V3 domain of gp120. These sera exhibited virus-neutralizing activity in that they markedly reduced the ability of HIV to infect and form syncytia of a human T-cell line. This is the first demonstration that cells transduced with a retroviral vector encoding the HIV-IIIB envelope protein are capable of inducing effective HIV-specific cellular and humoral immune responses in mice.     

Preferential coronary arterial drug delivery

A transcatheter technique for administering drugs preferentially to the canine left coronary circulation is described. The method involves pulsed, diastolic, small-volume (0.2 ml) injections through a specially designed aortic cusp catheter. In order to evaluate preferential delivery to the coronary circulation, papaverine was administered using this technique and compared to intravenous delivery. Left circumflex and carotid arterial blood flow, as well as systemic arterial pressure, were simultaneously measured. In eight of ten animals studied, diastolic aortic cusp administration of the drug for periods of up to 30 minutes increased circumflex flow an average of 136%, increased carotid arterial flow 22%, and decreased systemic arterial pressure 18%. Intravenous delivery increased circumflex flow an average of 34%, increased carotid flow 41%, and decreased systemic arterial pressure 13%. The technique has immediate research and potential clinical application as a means of preferentially delivering diagnostic or therapeutic agents, such as thrombolytics, to the coronary circulation.     

Prolonged CD4+ lymphocytopenia and thrombocytopenia in a chimpanzee persistently infected with human immunodeficiency virus type 1.

The immunologic and virologic status of a chimpanzee inoculated with multiple isolates of the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) were assessed over 57 months to determine whether prolonged thrombocytopenia and CD4+ lymphocytopenia observed in the animal might be associated with long-term HIV infection. Although the chimpanzee showed no signs of disease, it lost both CD4+ (as low as 134 cells/microliter) and CD8+ lymphocytes approximately 30 months after initial infection, followed by thrombocytopenia that has persisted for greater than 2 years. Lymphopenia and thrombocytopenia were preceded by or coincided with the appearance of antibodies cross-reactive with histone H2B and decreased levels of complement component C4; an eightfold decrease in HIV-specific antibody titers; the inability of CD8+ lymphocytes to suppress virus replication; impaired proliferative responses to T cell mitogens; and the isolation of cell-free HIV from plasma. These data suggest that, given sufficient time, HIV-infected chimpanzees may develop disease.     

Incidence of gastric parietal cell antibody in families of patients with iron deficiency anaemia

There is an association of pernicious anaemia with iron deficiency anaemia (Faber and Gram, 1924). There is also a high incidence (85 per cent) of gastric parietal cell antibody in the sera of patients with pernicious anaemia (Taylor, Roitt, Doniach, Couchman and Shapland, 1962) and a less marked, but significantly increased incidence (33 per cent) in patients with iron deficiency anaemia who have a histamine fast achlorhydria (Dagg, Goldberg, Anderson, Beck and Gray, 1964). Pernicious anaemia has a familial incidence (Askey, 1940; Callender and Denborough, 1957) and there is also an increased frequency of achlorhydria in relatives of patients with pernicious anaemia (Askey, 1940; Neel, 1947). In addition te Velde, Abels, Anders, Arends, Hoedemaeker and Nieweg (1964) have found the gastric parietal cell antibody in 20 per cent of relatives of patients with pernicious anaemia, compared with 6 per cent in a control series. Because of the association of iron deficiency anaemia with pernicious anaemia and the increased incidence of histamine fast achlorhydria and parietal cell antibody in both diseases, the occurrence of the antibody has been assessed in the families of patients with iron deficiency anaemia, histamine fast achlorhydria and gastric parietal cell antibody. In a group of 22 patients with iron deficiency anaemia, histamine fast achlorhydria and gastric parietal cell antibody, Dagg, Goldberg, Gibbs and Anderson (1966) found that seven had a ⁵⁸Co vitamin B₁₂ absorption test (Schilling, 1953) characteristic of pernicious anaemia, and six of these had reduced serum vitamin B₁₂ levels; that is these patients had latent pernicious anaemia. In 10 of the 22 patients the serum vitamin B₁₂ levels and the Schilling test were normal, and in the remaining five patients the serum vitamin B₁₂ was low but the Schilling test was normal. Since it appeared possible that the familial incidence of gastric parietal cell antibody would be higher in relatives of the patients with latent pernicious anaemia than in relatives of those without latent pernicious anaemia, 11 families from these 22 patients were investigated, six of which had propositi with latent pernicious anaemia and five of which had propositi without latent pernicious anaemia (Table I). The relatives of the remaining 11 patients were unwilling to co-operate in these investigations.     

Knockout mice lacking steroidogenic factor 1 are a novel genetic model of hypothalamic obesity.

Knockout (KO) mice lacking steroidogenic factor 1 (SF-1) exhibit a phenotype that includes adrenal and gonadal agenesis, impaired gonadotropin expression, and abnormalities of the ventromedial hypothalamic nucleus (VMH). Studies in rodents with lesions of the ventromedial hypothalamus have implicated the VMH in body weight regulation, suggesting that SF-1 KO mice may provide a genetic model of obesity. To prevent death, SF-1 KO mice were rescued with corticosteroid injections, followed by syngeneic adrenal transplants from wild-type (WT) littermates. Corticosterone and ACTH levels in WT and SF-1 KO mice were indistinguishable, documenting restoration of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal function. Although weights at earlier ages did not differ significantly from WT littermates, SF-1 KO mice were significantly heavier by 8 wk of age and eventually weighed almost twice as much as WT controls. Obesity in SF-1 KO mice predominantly resulted from decreased activity rather than increased food intake. Leptin was increased markedly, insulin was modestly elevated, and glucose was indistinguishable from WT mice. Although sex steroids in rodents affect weight, ovariectomy did not abolish the weight difference between WT and SF-1 KO mice. These SF-1 KO mice are a genetic model of late-onset obesity that may help elucidate the role of the VMH in weight regulation.