Transient Expression of Functional Glucocerebrosidase for Treatment of Gaucher’s Disease in the Goat Mammary Gland

Gaucher disease (GD) is an orphan disease characterized by the lack or incapacity of glucocerebrosidase (hGCase) to properly process glucosylceramide, resulting in its accumulation in vital structures of the human body. Enzyme replacement therapy supplies hGCase to GD patients with a high-cost recombinant enzyme produced in vitro in mammalian or plant cell culture. In this study, we produced hGCase through the direct injection of recombinant adenovirus in the mammary gland of a non-transgenic goat. The enzyme was secreted in the milk during six days at a level up to 111.1 ± 8.1 mg/L, as identified by mass spectrometry, showing high in vitro activity. The milk-produced hGCase presented a mass correspondent to the intermediary high-mannose glycosylated protein, which could facilitate its delivery to macrophages through the macrophage mannose receptor. Further studies are underway to determine the in vivo delivery capacity of milk-hGCase, but results from this study paves the way toward the generation of transgenic goats constitutively expressing hGCase in the milk.