Genetics and Gene Therapy of Anderson-Fabry Disease

Title:Genetics and Gene Therapy of Anderson-Fabry Disease

Volume: 18 Issue: 2

Author(s): Irene Simonetta*, Antonino Tuttolomondo, Tiziana Di Chiara, Salvatore Miceli, Danai Vogiatzis, Francesca Corpora and Antonio Pinto

Affiliation:

• Dipartimento Biomedico di Medicina Interna e Specialistica (Di.Bi.M.I.S), U.O.C.di Medicina Interna con Stroke Care, Università degli Studi di Palermo, Piazza delle Cliniche n.2, 90127, Palermo,Italy

Keywords: Alpha galactosidase A, Fabry disease, Enzyme replacement therapy, Gene therapy, Viral vectors, Chaperone therapy.

Abstract: Fabry's disease is a genetic disorder of X-linked inheritance caused by mutations in the alpha galactosidase A gene resulting in deficiency of this lysosomal enzyme. The progressive accumulation of glycosphingolipids, caused by the inadequate enzymatic activity, is responsible of organ dysfunction and thus of clinical manifestations. In the presence of a high clinical suspicion, a careful physical examination and specific laboratory tests are required, finally diagnosis of Fabry's disease is confirmed by the demonstration of absence or reduced alpha-galactosidase A enzyme activity in hemizygous men and gene typing in heterozygous females; in fact the performance of enzymatic activity assay alone in women is inconclusive. Measurement of the biomarkers Gb3 and Lyso Gb3 in biological specimens may facilitate diagnosis. Because of its multisystemic involvement Fabry’s disease may present a large spectrum of clinical manifestations as acroparesthesias, hypohidrosis, angiokeratomas, signs and symptoms of cardiac, renal, cerebrovascular involvement (renal insufficiency, proteinuria, left ventricular hypertrophy, strokes). Enzyme replacement therapy with recombinant α- galactosidase A is actually the specific therapy for Fabry disease. Early beginning of this treatment has shown beneficial effects in particular in cardiac and renal disease, a less efficacy it has been reported in central nervous system involvement. ERT has shown to be associated to a significant reduction of Gb3 accumulation in several tissues, in particular heart and kidney; moreover it improves pain related quality of life. Next generation lysosomal storage disorder treatment is based on new strategic approaches as stem cell based therapy, pharmacological chaperones, viral gene therapy; concerning Fabry’s disease, it has been recently addressed to great interest this last innovative method, that is to say viral gene therapy, for delivering recombination enzyme into main involved tissues; promising results have been reported in animal models. Great efforts have been made and are still required in this field in order to make available a more effective, safer, advantageous therapeutic strategy for patients with Fabry's disease.

Cite this article as:

Simonetta Irene*, Tuttolomondo Antonino, Di Chiara Tiziana , Miceli Salvatore, Vogiatzis Danai , Corpora Francesca and Pinto Antonio , Genetics and Gene Therapy of Anderson-Fabry Disease, Current Gene Therapy 2018; 18 (2) . https://dx.doi.org/10.2174/1566523218666180404161315