LEADER 02785cam a2200289 n 450 001 TD20012245 005 20201028104027.0 049 $aTDMAGDIG 100 $a20190501d2019 --k--ita-50----ba 101 1 $aeng 200 1 $aLARGE GENE DELIVERY TO THE RETINA BY MULTIPLE AAV VECTORS$bTesi di dottorato 210 1$cUniversità degli Studi di Milano$d2019-01-28 300 $adiritti: info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess 300 $aIn relazione con info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/hdl/2434/608611 328 0$btesi di dottorato$cSettore BIO/18 - Genetica$eUniversità degli Studi di Milano 330 $aRetinal gene therapy with adeno-associated viral (AAV) vectors is safe and effective yet it is limited by AAV cargo capacity of about 5 kb. AAV transfer capacity which is expanded by dual AAV up to 9 kb would still not suffice for treatment of inherited retinal diseases, such as Alström syndrome type I (ALMS) due to mutations in ALMS1 (CDS: 12.5 kb). For this purpose, I have generated triple AAV vectors, with a maximal transfer capacity of about 14 kb, encoding for ALMS1. Full-length protein expression occurs both in vitro and in the mouse retina where around 4% of photoreceptors are transduced by triple AAV vectors. ALMS1 showed correct localization in the mouse retina and this results in improvement of the retinal phenotype of a mouse model of ALMS. Additionally, I propose a different strategy to reconstitute large proteins in the retina which is protein trans-splicing mediated by split-inteins. Here I show that delivery of multiple AAV vectors each encoding for one of the fragments of either EGFP or large therapeutic protein flanked by short split-inteins results in full-length protein reconstitution in the retina of mice, pigs and in human retinal organoids. Moreover, the levels of large protein reconstitution achieved improves the retinal phenotype in a mouse model of Leber congenital amaurosis type 10 due to mutation in CEP290. These data support the use of split-inteins-mediated protein trans-splicing in combination with AAV subretinal delivery for gene therapy of inherited blindness due to mutations in large genes. 689 0 $aSettore BIO/18$b- Genetica$cTDR 700 0$aTORNABENE, PATRIZIA 702 0$aAURICCHIO, ALBERTO 702 0$ainternal supervisor: A. De Matteis ; tutor: A. Auricchio ; external supervisor: H. Dollfus 801 3$aIT$bIT-FI0098 856 4 $uhttp://memoria.depositolegale.it/*/http://hdl.handle.net/2434/608611$2http://hdl.handle.net/2434/608611 856 4 $uhttp://memoria.depositolegale.it/*/http://air.unimi.it/bitstream/2434/608611/2/phd_unimi_R11145.pdf$2http://air.unimi.it/bitstream/2434/608611/2/phd_unimi_R11145.pdf 977 $a CR 997 $aCF FMT $aTD FOR $aTD