Many Sangamo Authors Listed on Scientific Reports with MD Anderson and Ziopharm

• Hiroki Torikai¹
• , Tiejuan Mi¹
• , Loren Gragert²
• , Martin Maiers²
• , Amer Najjar¹
• , Sonny Ang¹
• , Sourindra Maiti¹
• , Jianliang Dai³
• , Kirsten C. Switzer¹
• , Helen Huls¹
• , Gladys P. Dulay⁴
• , Andreas Reik⁴
• , Edward J. Rebar⁴
• , Michael C. Holmes⁴
• , Philip D. Gregory⁴
• , Richard E. Champlin⁵
• , Elizabeth J. Shpall⁵
• […]
•  & Laurence J. N. Cooper^{1, 6}
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• Scientific Reports 6, Article number: 21757 (2016)
• doi:10.1038/srep21757
• Download Citation
• • Stem-cell biotechnology |
  • Transplant immunology

Received:

30 October 2015

Accepted:

27 January 2016

Published online:

23 February 2016

http://www.nature.com/articles/srep21757

Genetic editing of HLA expression in hematopoietic stem cells to broaden their human application

AbstractAbstract

Mismatch of human leukocyte antigens (HLA) adversely impacts the outcome of patients after allogeneic hematopoietic stem-cell transplantation (alloHSCT). This translates into the clinical requirement to timely identify suitable HLA-matched donors which in turn curtails the chances of recipients, especially those from a racial minority, to successfully undergo alloHSCT. We thus sought to broaden the existing pool of registered unrelated donors based on analysis that eliminating the expression of the HLA-A increases the chance for finding a donor matched at HLA-B, -C, and -DRB1 regardless of a patient’s race. Elimination of HLA-A expression in HSC was achieved using artificial zinc finger nucleases designed to target HLA-A alleles. Significantly, these engineered HSCs maintain their ability to engraft and reconstitute hematopoiesis in immunocompromised mice. This introduced loss of HLA-A expression decreases the need to recruit large number of donors to match with potential recipients and has particular importance for patients whose HLA repertoire is under-represented in the current donor pool. Furthermore, the genetic engineering of stem cells provides a translational approach to HLA-match a limited number of third-party donors with a wide number of recipients.