Efficiency of different fragment lengths of the ubiquitous chromatin opening element HNRPA2B1-CBX3 in driving human CD18 gene expression within self-inactivating lentiviral vectors for gene therapy applications.

Patients with leukocyte adhesion deficiency type 1 (LAD1) suffer from life-threatening bacterial infections due to mutations in the common β integrin subunit (CD18/ITGB2 gene). We tested different fragments of the ubiquitous chromatin opening element (UCOE) from the human HNRPA2B1-CBX3 locus for their efficiency in driving the human CD18 gene expression and compared it with that of an elongation factor 1 alpha promoter (EF1αL, 1169 bp; EF1αS 248 bp) and a murine stem cell virus (MSCV) promoter within the context of the same lentiviral vector backbone. These vectors were tested in vitro for the human CD18 gene expression on the surface of CD34 hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) isolated from both moderate and severe LAD1 patients.

Unraveling the role of ER stress inhibitors in the context of metabolic diseases.

ER stress is provoked by the accumulation of unfolded and misfolded proteins in the ER lumen leading to perturbations in ER homeostasis. ER stress activates a signaling cascade called the Unfolded Protein Response (UPR) which triggers a set of transcriptional and translational events that restore ER homeostasis, promoting cell survival and adaptation. If this adaptive response fails, a terminal UPR program commits such cells to apoptosis.

Gene therapy in India: a focus.

Gene therapy refers to the treatment of genetic diseases using normal copies of the defective genes. It has the potential to cure any genetic disease with long-lasting therapeutic benefits. It remained an enigma for a long period of time, which was followed by a series of setbacks in the late 1990s.