Clotting Factor VIII Overexpression Shows Signs of ER Stress but Does Not Cause Toxicity upon Gene Transfer

Hemophilia A is the X-linked bleeding disorder resulting from the loss of functional clotting factor VIII (FVIII). Hemophilia A patients with severe disease (<1% residual FVIII activity) experience spontaneous bleeds into the joints and closed spaces with severe morbidity.  Restoration of hemostasis is managed by repeated infusions (2-3 times per week) of plasma derived or recombinant FVIII protein.  While a standard treatment is available for patients, life-long infusions of FVIII protein is very expensive, has a negative impact on the patient’s quality of life, and FVIII protein products are not available worldwide. Hence, there is a need to develop a more robust and cost effective treatment for hemophilia A patients. Liver-directed gene therapy using adeno-associated virus (AAV) represents a promising approach to treat hemophilia A. However, previous studies have shown that overexpression of human FVIII protein in the context of hydrodynamic delivery of plasmid vectors induces ER stress mediated through the unfolded protein response (UPR). Because human FVIII protein is inefficiently secreted into circulation, high AAV vector doses will be required to obtain therapeutic expression levels. Therefore, we sought to determine if AAV-FVIII gene delivery also triggers cellular UPR in hepatocytes in vivo. To this end, we selected to use a codon-optimized FVIII cDNA, which has been shown by our lab to significantly increase FVIII protein expression, and a high vector dose of AAV8-ApoE-hAAT-cohF8, containing a hepatocyte-specific enhancer/promoter combination. We evaluated this vector at doses of 1 x 10¹¹ vg (4x10¹² vg/kg) and 1 x 10¹² vg (4x10¹³ vg/kg) in hemophilia A mice on a 129/BL6 background. Intravenous administration of the highest vector dose completely restored hemostasis, which was sustained and achieved super-physiological levels in some animals. Importantly, none of these mice developed inhibitors against FVIII. Next, we administered the vector at the same 2 doses to C67BL/6 mice, which show higher hepatic transduction efficiency than other strains. Experimental controls consisted of mice, with no vector or 1x10¹² vg of AAV8-ApoE-hAAT-F9, expressing human factor IX (FIX) protein. Injection of tunicamycin, a potent inducer of the ER stress response, served as a positive control for all assays. Vector-treated mice were studied 2 and 4 weeks after gene transfer (n=3-4 per group). First, we evaluated the status of key molecular chaperones, known to be the mediators of the UPR: Bip, p-PERK, and p-eIF2a. Western blotting performed on the liver lysates indicated modest up-regulation of all three markers compared to normal control, but that effect was neither dose nor gene dependent. In addition, we tested the splicing of Xbp1 mRNA by PCR assay and observed low level of the 26 bp spliced fragment, indicative of the UPR, at the high vector dose. Immunohistochemistry on liver sections from each of our experimental groups including H&E staining, Tunnel staining for apoptotic cells, and reactive oxygen species staining. None of the stains yielded evidence for liver damage even in the 1x10¹² AAV8-cohF8 treated mice compared to untreated controls. There was also no elevation of liver enzyme levels in plasma samples. Analysis of plasma from vector injected mice showed systemic levels of human FVIII and FIX proteins at ~30 ng/ml and ~6300 ng/ml, respectively (these ELISA-based measurements likely underestimate FVIII levels due to interference by von Willebrand factor).  Overall our results suggest that over-expression of coagulation factors in hepatocytes from AAV vectors causes a mild cell stress response that is not strong enough to cause liver toxicity, is not specific for FVIII, and does impact expression or immunogenicity.