Engineering brown fat into skeletal muscle using ultrasound-targeted microbubble destruction gene delivery in obese Zucker rats: Proof of concept design

Ultrasound-targeted microbubble destruction (UTMD) is a novel means of tissue-specific gene delivery. This approach systemically infuses transgenes precoupled to gas-filled lipid microbubbles that are burst within the microvasculature of target tissues via an ultrasound signal resulting in release of DNA and transfection of neighboring cells within the tissue. Previous work has shown that adenovirus containing cDNA of UCP-1, injected into the epididymal fat pads in mice, induced localized fat depletion, improving glucose tolerance, and decreasing food intake in obese diabetic mice. Our group recently demonstrated that gene therapy by UTMD achieved beta cell regeneration in streptozotocin (STZ)-treated mice and baboons. We hypothesized that gene therapy with BMP7/PRDM16/PPARGC1A in skeletal muscle (SKM) of obese Zucker diabetic fatty (fa/fa) rats using UTMD technology would produce a brown adipose tissue (BAT) phenotype with UCP-1 overexpression. This study was designed as a proof of concept (POC) project. Obese Zucker rats were administered plasmid cDNA contructs encoding a gene cocktail with BMP7/PRDM16/PPARGC1A incorporated within microbubbles and intravenously delivered into their left thigh. Controls received UTMD with plasmids driving a DsRed reporter gene. An ultrasound transducer was directed to the thigh to disrupt the microbubbles within the microcirculation. Blood samples were drawn at baseline, and after treatment to measure glucose, insulin, and free fatty acids levels. SKM was harvested for immunohistochemistry (IHC). Our IHC results showed a reliable pattern of effective UTMD-based gene delivery in enhancing SKM overexpression of the UCP-1 gene. This clearly indicates that our plasmid DNA construct encoding the gene combination of PRDM16, PPARGC1A, and BMP7 reprogrammed adult SKM tissue into brown adipose cells in vivo. Our pilot established POC showing that the administration of the gene cocktail to SKM in this rat model of genetic obesity using UTMD gene therapy, engineered a BAT phenotype with UCP-1 over-expression.