advances in the management of...
TRANSCRIPT
NEWER THERAPIES IN THE MANAGEMENT OF
THALASSEMIA
PROF JANET POOLEDEPT OF PAEDIATRICS, HAEM/ONC, CMJAH,
FACULTY OF HEALTH SCIENCES,UNIVERSITY OF THE WITWATERSRAND,
JOHANNESBURG
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HAEMOGLOBINPATHIES
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Background• Thalassemias are the most common human
mongenic disorders related to deficiency in
production of the or globin chains.
• -Thalassemia Major/Cooley’s
Anaemia/Mediterranean Anaemia is the most
severe.
• Despite prenatal diagnosis in some countries,
> 50,000 children are born each year worldwide,
leading to the disease burden of this condition
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Short Stature, HSM
Maxillary Hyperplasia
BETA- THALASSAEMIA MAJOR•Present 3-6mths – 4 years
(β0/β+)
•Anaemia
•Jaundice
•Hepatosplenomegaly
•CCF
•Maxillary Hyperplasia & Frontal Bossing
•Frequent Infections
•Hypersplenism
•Poor Growth
•Death in 1st decadeUPTOSPAED2019
EFFECTS OF EXCESS α–GLOGIN FREE CHAINS
Excess free globin chains
Chain precipitates
Cell membrane damage
Red blood cells Bone marrow
Haemolysis Ineffective erythropoesis
ANAEMIA
Erythropoeitin
increased
Bone marrow
expansion
Skelatal changes
Hypermetabolic state
Extramedullary
haemopoeisis
Blood transfusion
Iron loading
Cardiac, Hepatic, Diabetic DEATHHSM
Iron absorption
increased
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SURVIVAL OF THALASSEMIA
MAJOR
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THE CONTINUED CHALLENGE
• Today β-Thalassemia patients
are living to 40-50 years but
patients are still dying
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Therapies for -Thalassemia
Supportive therapy▪ Transfusion
– Leukoreduction– Viral testing
▪ Iron overload– Deferoxamine (DFO)– Deferiprone– Deferasirox
▪ Endocrinopathies– Hormone replacement
▪ Osteoporosis– Osteoclast replacement– Vitamin D
Curative therapy▪ Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation
– Bone marrow– Cord blood– Unrelated donor– Non-myeloablative
▪ Experimental therapy– EPO– Fetal hemoglobin modifiers
(hydroxyurea, butyrate)– Antioxidants
Future therapy▪ Gene therapy
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Current and future therapies
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CONVENTIONAL THERAPIES
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Complications of iron overload
Non-transferrin-bound iron
circulates in the plasma
Excess iron promotes
the generation of free
hydroxyl radicals,
propagators of oxygen-
related tissue damage
Liver cirrhosis/
fibrosis/cancer
Insoluble iron complexes
are deposited in body
tissues and end-organ
toxicity occurs
Diabetes
mellitus
Growth
failure
Capacity of serum transferrin
to bind iron is exceeded
Iron overload
Cardiac
failureInfertility
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Dying RBC
Reticuloendothelial System
Free Iron
Liver
Heart
Endocrine organsCIRRHOSIS
ARRHYTHMIA HEART FAILURE
DIABETES
Delayed Puberty & InfertilityUPTOSPAED2019
SURVIVAL & COMPLICATIONS OF TM -
SICS• 977 Pts - 47% ♀
– If born > 1970 80% OS
– If born < 1970 60% OS
• Causes of death – 60% CCF– Probability of heart disease after age 10 – dec with
birth cohort
• Complcations (>1970)– Hypothyroid -11%
– Heart disease 13%
– Liver – HCV 85%, HBV 34%
– Diabetes 6%
– Hypogonadism – Male 55%, Female 50%
• If born 1985 -97 – most complication freeUPTOSPAED2019
CAUSES OF DEATH - ITALY
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NO. DEATHS OF TM PTS - UK
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NEWER THERAPIES1. Prenatal diagnosis – DNA based tests
– Shown to decrease Thal births in susceptible pop
2. HbF – switch– many studies with hydroxyurea, 5-Azacytidine,
Butyrate – works better in sickle cell disease because endpoint is not correction of anaemia (at best get 20-30% induction γ-globin gene)
3. Stem cell transplant– Lucarelli – good if MSD -95% survival
– MUD – 25% mortality – too high
4. Gene Therapy in intact mice – 2002
5. Gene Therapy in human blood progenitors -2004
6. 2008 – 1st patient successfully transplanted UPTOSPAED2019
Induction of HbF
• Largely ineffective
in Beta -
Thalassemia as
not sufficient to
become
transfusion
independant
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Allogeneic HSCT
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STEM CELL TRANSPLANTATION• MSD – Lucarelli
– good results, but only 30% TM have a MSD
• Adult >17yrs – 3 risk classes depending on chelation, hepatomegaly
& liver fibrosis
– More transplant related morbidity esp GvHD
– 67% EFS (vs 50% survival if no transplant)
• Sibling cord blood vs marrow– Need a specific program
• MUD – Transplant Related Morbidity & mortality too high for non-malignant disease – only 60% EFS
• Unrelated cord blood – high rate of rejection
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MSD Transplantation - Lucarelli
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Survival according to Class
• Defined
according to
the presence of
hepatomegaly
and portal
fibrosis
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Success depends on Chimerism
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Gene Therapy
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Fundamental Issues for Gene
therapy
• The source of haemopoietic stem/progenitor cells should
contain an adequate dose of early stem cells to ensure
long-term engraftment
• The choice of BM conditioning regimen should create
space for the transduced cells but reduce toxicity
• The dose of transduced HSPCs and the therapeutic level
of transgene expression which depends on the vector
output and average vector copy number
• The presence of a favourable BM microenvironment
enabling regeneration of complete haemopoiesis
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GENE THERAPY
• Lentivirus vector is derived from HIV-1 with SIN insulator at both ends
• Issues
– Stem cell transduction efficiency
– Stem cell recovery and engraftment
– Appropriate preparative regimen
– Would insulators improve safety?
– Do other regulatory elements have advantages
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GLOBIN GENE TRANSFER
• History
– 1960 – dream
– 1981 – prematurity – Cline experiment
– 1988 – hope & disillusion – Low expression in mice, low transfer, vector instability
– 2000 – efficacy• Lentiviral TNS9 vector
• Req – lineage restricted, erythroid specific, position independent, sustained over time
• Correction of anaemia, prevention of 20 organ damage, long term expression, peripheral differentiation, expression in human cells
– 2005 – safety – risk of insertional oncogenesis as in SCID trials
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2010• Cavazzna-Calvo reported first successful use of gene
therapy in a HbE/beta Thal patient
• The HSCs were tansduced ex-vivo with a lentivirus
vector carrying an extended -globin gene structure.
• Gradual stabilisation of the haemoglobin levels rendered
him transfusion independent for up to 6 years
• However transduced cell engraftment was associated
with clonal expansion of the erythroid cells with vector
insertion site at the HMGA2 locus – need to be followed
closely for possible adverse events
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MSKCC/NIH/UW TRIAL for Gene
Therapy
• >15yrs age
• No MSD
• Transduce normal globin gene using TNS9.3.55 lentivirus vector into CD34+ G-CSF mobilised cells from patient
• Non-myeloablative regimen
• Transplant transducted autologous stem cells
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Preliminary Results – NEJM 2018• 22 Patients with tranfusion dependant - Thalassemia
were enrolled in 2 Phase 1-2 studies
• CD34+ cells were mobilised and transduced with the
Lentiglobin BB305 vector
• The cells were re-infused after Busulphan myeloablative
conditioning
• All but 1 out of 13 non-0 0 genotype became
transfusion independent
• In 9 patients with a 0 0 genotype there was a 73%
reduction in transfusion requirements, and only 1 patient
became transfusion independent
• No clonal dominance related to the vector integration
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HAEMOPOIETIC & EMBRYONIC STEM
CELL CORRECTIONS IN MOUSE
MODELS
• Therapeutic vs reproductive cloning
– Somatic cell (fibroblast) nucleus is transferred
into an unfertilised enucleated egg
– Nuclear transfer embryo cultured in lab
– Blastocyst inner cell mass cultured to colonies
of Embryonic stem cells (ESC)
• Can be cultured indefinitely
• Mutations can be corrected
• Transplant cell back into host (no GvHD)
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Β – Thal Mouse
Derive EScells
Lentiviral Transduction
Human β-globin gene
transfer
Homologous recombination
Knock-in human β-globin
Genetic correction
of ES cells
Back into mouse
Both have been done & have been successful in correcting
anaemia in the Thal Mouse UPTOSPAED2019
• Globin gene transfer
– Adv
• all steps have been successful in animal models
• Clinical trials could be initiated soon
– Disadv
• Insertion of therapeutic genes at random sites
• Cells cannot be expanded before transplantation
• Therapeutic cloning
– Adv
• Site specific insertions can be expanded before
transplantation
– Disadv
• Not ever done for Haemoglobinopathy
• Ethical considerations for blastocyst == human being
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• Future
– Limit interaction between vector & neighbouring oncogenes – looking for ? A superior vector
– Efficient vector production
– Host conditioning – minimal conditioning vs low engraftment
– First need non-human primate studies
– Clinical transduction protocol of human CD34+ cells
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Β – Thal Mouse
Derive EScells
Lentiviral Transduction
Human β-globin gene
transfer
Homologous recombination
Knock-in human β-globin
Genetic correction
of ES cells
Back into mouse
Both have been done & have been successful in correcting
anaemia in the Thal Mouse UPTOSPAED2019
• Globin gene transfer
– Adv
• all steps have been successful in animal models
• Clinical trials could be initiated soon
– Disadv
• Insertion of therapeutic genes at random sites
• Cells cannot be expanded before transplantation
• Therapeutic cloning
– Adv
• Site specific insertions can be expanded before
transplantation
– Disadv
• Not ever done for Hbopathy
• Ethical considerations for blastocyst == human being
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Gene Editing Stem Cells
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Fetal Haemoglobin Revival
• Fetal Hb production only occurs in the fetus
• A gene called BCL11A represses this production
in adulthood
• By modifying the expression of this gene,
production of HbF could be derepressed
• Rationale behind the recent announced
CRISPR-based trial.
• Remains to be seen whether this approach is
able to cure Beta Thalassemia patients
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CONCLUSION
• Conventional therapy can polong life, but
as patients are living longer, morbidity
increases, and the cost is high
• The only cure at present is a HSCT with a
Matched Sibling donor at an early age
• Gene therapy is in its infancy, and at
present is out of reach for the majority of
Beta Thalassemia patients, most of whom
live in LMICUPTOSPAED2019