[Transplantation of genetically modified cells in the treatment of children with SCID: great hopes and recent disappointments]

Abstract

Children with severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) die within 2 years of age if untreated. The only effective treatment for SCID since 1968 is a hematopoetic stem cells (HSC) transplantation. Only 25% of patients have an HLA matched related donor, while the rest have to be transplanted with T cells depleted haploidentical parental bone marrow, unrelated bone marrow or unrelated umbilical cord blood. In many cases, however, despite a positive outcome, children are not achieving B cell reconstitution and require regular IV Ig infusion. Gene therapy with genetically modified autologous cells offers a cure with no immunological complications such as graft rejection, graft versus host disease (GVHD) or post-transplantation immunosuppressive therapy. The first gene therapy trials were introduced in 1990 for adenosine deaminase (ADA) deficient patients who had failed to respond to PEG-ADA. Since then, three clinical trials have evaluated the transplantation of ex-vivo transduced autologous haematopoietic stem cells (HSC) to treat ADA deficiency. One trial used only bone marrow HSC, a second used bone marrow plus peripheral blood T lymphocytes, and a third used umbilical cord blood HSC. These trials give promise but also define the present limitations of gene therapy. Future protocols might be adjusted according to the new observations that ADA-expressing T cells have a strong selective advantage over ADA-deficient T cells. PEG-ADA enzyme therapy might be therefore contraindicated. Another new strategy might involve moderate conditioning prior to the reinfusion of genetically modified CD34+ cells, "making space" for transplanted HSC. The first successful gene therapy was reported for treatment of X-linked severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID-X1) in Science 2000. Since then, the group at the Hopital Necker in Paris has treated 11 patients with ex-vivo gene therapy for the deficiency of the common g chain. All eleven boys are alive, however, one of them recently developed a leukaemia-like disease. This case is being investigated to determine whether the genetic manipulations of the patient's HSC could be the reason for mutagenesis and how other factors could have contributed to this unfortunate event.