Sleeping Beauty-Mediated Drug Resistance Gene Transfer in Human Hematopoietic Progenitor Cells

The Sleeping Beauty (SB) transposon system can insert sequences into mammalian chromosomes, supporting long-term expression of both reporter and therapeutic genes. Hematopoietic progenitor cells (HPCs) are an ideal therapeutic gene transfer target as they are used in therapy for a variety of hematologic and metabolic conditions. As successful SB-mediated gene transfer into human CD34+ HPCs has been reported by several laboratories, we sought to extend these studies to the introduction of a therapeutic gene conferring resistance to methotrexate (MTX), potentially providing a chemoprotective effect after engraftment. SB-mediated transposition of hematopoietic progenitors, using a transposon encoding an L22Y variant dihydrofolate reductase fused to green fluorescent protein, conferred resistance to methotrexate and dipyridamole, a nucleoside transport inhibitor that tightens MTX selection conditions, as assessed by in vitro hematopoietic colony formation. Transposition of individual transgenes was confirmed ...