Reduced inflammatory response to plasmid DNA vectors by elimination and inhibition of immunostimulatory CpG motifs

An inflammatory response is invariably associated with administration of gene transfer complexes composed of cationic lipids and plasmid DNA (pDNA). In the lung, an influx of neutrophils and elevated levels of several proinflammatory cytokines such as TNF-alpha, IFN-gamma, IL-6, and IL-12 characterize this dose-dependent response. The induction of these cytokines was shown previously to be due in part to the presence of unmethylated CpG dinucleotides in the bacterially derived pDNA. We have eliminated 270 of 526 CpG dinucleotides in a reporter plasmid (pCFA-CAT) and tested the inflammatory response to cationic lipid:pDNA complexes containing the modified vector (pGZA-CAT) after intravenous (iv) or intranasal (i.n.) delivery into BALB/c mice. Compared to the unmodified vector, the CpG-reduced pGZA-CAT was found to be significantly less immunostimulatory, as the levels of IL-72, IFN-gamma, and IL-6 in the serum 24 h after iv delivery were reduced by 40 to 75%. Similar reductions in cytokine levels were also observed in the bronchoalveolar lavage fluids (BALF) after i.n. administration, while the levels of reporter gene expression were not affected by the modifications. We have also investigated known inhibitors of the CpG signaling pathways in order to decrease the inflammatory response. Two such inhibitors, chloroquine and quinacrine, greatly reduced the induction of IL-12 from mouse spleen cells in vitro and inhibited cytokine production in the lung by approximately 50% without affecting gene expression. These results illustrate that use of a less immunostimulatory pDNA vector or inhibitors of CpG immunostimulation can reduce significantly the toxicity associated with cationic lipid:pDNA complexes thereby increasing the therapeutic index of this synthetic gene transfer vector.