Tuesday, February 8, 2022

In vivo overexpression of frataxin causes toxicity mediated by iron-sulfur cluster deficiency

Claudia Huichalaf, Tyler L. Perfitt, Anna Kuperman, Renea Gooch, Ramesh C. Kovi, Karrie A. Brenneman, Xian Chen, Dinesh Hirenallur-Shanthappa, Tiffany Ma, Basel T. Assaf, Ingrid Pardo, Tania Franks, Laura Monarski, Ting-Wen Cheng, Kevin Le, Chunyan Su, Suryanarayan Somanathan, Laurence O. Whiteley, Christine Bulawa, Marko J. Pregel, Alain Martelli; Molecular Therapy - Methods & Clinical Development, 2022, doi:10.1016/j.omtm.2022.02.002. 

At the lowest tested dose, we observed moderate liver toxicity that was accompanied by progressive loss of transgene expression and liver regeneration. Together, our data provide insights into the toxicity of frataxin overexpression that should be considered in the development of a gene therapy approach for Friedreich’s ataxia.