Platelet-Targeted Gene Transfer Induces Antigen-Specific Immune Tolerance

Induction of antigen-specific immune tolerance is desirable in autoimmune diseases, transplantation, and gene therapy. Our previous studies have demonstrated that FVIII or FIX expression ectopically targeted to platelets under control of the platelet-specific αIIb promoter results in transgene protein storage in platelet α-granules. Further studies have demonstrated that lentivirus-mediated platelet-specific gene delivery to hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) not only restores hemostasis but also induces antigen-specific immune tolerance in hemophilic mice. We wanted to explore whether platelet-specific gene transfer can be used as a means of immune tolerance induction. In the current study, we used ovalbumin (OVA) as a non-coagulant protein to further examine the potential of a platelet gene therapy-based immune tolerance induction approach. We constructed a lentiviral vector (LV) in which OVA is driven by the αIIb promoter (2bOVA). Evidence suggests that VWF propeptide can reroute unrelated secreting proteins to a storage pathway. Thus, we designed another vector, 2bVpOVA, which contains VWF propeptide to secure OVA storage in platelet granules. HSCs from wild type B6/CD45.2 mice were transduced with 2bOVA or 2bVpOVA LV and transplanted into B6/CD45.1 recipients preconditioned with 660 cGy total body irradiation. We found that 96% of OVA expression in whole blood was stored in platelets with a level of 51.3 ± 22.5 ng/10⁸ platelets (n = 5) while 4% was detectable in plasma in 2bOVA-transduced recipients at 12-week after transplantation. This distribution is very similar to the results we obtained from the FIX study. In contrast, 98% of OVA was stored in platelets with a level of 3.9 ± 3.3 ng/10⁸ platelets (n = 5) in 2bVpOVA-transduced recipients. The lower total OVA expression level in the 2bVpOVA group could be due to the size effect of transgene expression cassette as the 2bVpOVA cassette is 3-fold larger than the 2bOVA cassette. To investigate whether anti-OVA immune tolerance was established in recipients after platelet-specific OVA gene transfer, 16-weeks post-transplantation, animals were challenged with OVA. The titer of anti-OVA total IgG determined by ELISA assay was 640 ± 101 in the 2bOVA group and 320 ± 0 in the 2bVpOVA group. These titers were significantly lower than that obtained from the untransduced control group (10210 ± 3636), demonstrating that platelet-specific OVA gene delivery to HSCs can suppress the anti-OVA immune response. Of note, the titer of anti-OVA total IgG in the 2bVpOVA group was significantly lower than in the 2bOVA group although the total OVA expression levels in the 2bOVA group is 13-fold higher than in the 2bVpOVA group. The percentage of regulatory T cells in peripheral blood in 2bOVA and 2bVpOVA-transduced recipients was significantly higher than in untransduced control animals. In summary, our data demonstrate that targeting transgene expression and storage in platelet a-granules is a potentially promising approach for inducing immune tolerance.