Cellular, electrophysiological and behavioral improvements in a mouse model of Rett syndrome following gene therapy combined with focused ultrasound-mediated blood-brain barrier opening.

Abstract

Rett syndrome (RTT) is a severe X-linked neurodevelopmental disorder due to pathogenic variants in the methyl CpG binding protein 2 gene (MECP2). The discovery that deficits resulting from Mecp2 loss are reversible in mice has increased interest in gene therapy as a potential cure for RTT. We have previously evaluated the efficacy of a self-complementary AAV9 vector expressing a codon-optimized version of Mecp2 (scAAV9-MCO) delivered via a systemic approach in early symptomatic Mecp2-knock-out male (KO) mice. In the present study, focused ultrasound (FUS) was used to transiently disrupt the blood-brain barrier (BBB) in a RTT mouse model, thereby facilitating enhanced AAV delivery to the central nervous system (CNS). Our findings demonstrate that scAAV9-MCO administration, when combined with FUS, significantly improves survival, body weight, respiratory function, and locomotor activity, while restoring the excitatory-inhibitory synaptic balance in hippocampal neurons in treated KO mice relative to untreated animals. Quantification of the brain infection level revealed that 20-40% of cells are Mecp2-positive in the brain of KO mice following the treatment with scAAV9-MCO and FUS. This is a significant improvement compared to prior results without FUS. The evaluation of the protein levels indicates a possible overdose of Mecp2 protein in the brain cells. Nevertheless, these results demonstrate that using FUS following systemic administration of an AAV9 vector represents a significant improvement over classical gene therapy protocol for RTT.