Office of Technology Management
Gene Transfer
into Adult Skeletal Muscle Cells
Summary:
A
method has been developed to inject genes directly into skeletal muscle
and to have these genes express stably (1). The methodology employs
retroviral-mediated gene transfer. The advantage of retrovirus as
the vehicle for transfer of the gene is that the gene is integrated into
the host genome. The method also provides a novel way to overcome
the inability of retroviruses to integrate into the non-proliferating myonuclei
of skeletal muscle. Retroviruses only integrate into proliferating
DNA. Skeletal muscle has dormant potential nuclei outside the muscle
fiber. These are called satellite cells. These cells can proliferate
and become myonuclei in existing muscle fibers. In this method, satellite
cell proliferation is induced by damaging the muscle in vivo with a local
anesthetic. The resultant regenerating muscle activates the dormant
satellite cells. The retrovirus containing the gene is injected at
the time when these cells are activated. The satellite cells with
the retroviral gene fuse to form new muscle fibers and the new nuclei express
the gene from the retrovirus. This procedure omits having to isolate,
culture and replant satellite cells, thus making it useful for human gene
therapy, protein delivery system, or in vivo studies of gene regulation
in small rodents.
Technology Status:
This
patent is available for licensing from UT-Houston Health Science Center.
Patent Status:
Inventor:
Frank
W. Booth, Ph.D.
Publication:
1)
Thomason, D.B. and Booth, F.W. Stable incorporation of a bacterial gene
into adult rat skeletal muscle in vivo. Am. J. Physiol. 258 (Cell Physiol.27):C578-C581,
1990.