Relationship of ABC transport proteins with hematopoietic stem cells and methods of use thereof

Patent Number: 6933150

This patent seems to cover methods of purifying and expanding hematopoietic stem cells by transfecting said stem cells with a drug efflux pump. It is not clear if the patent calls for administration of a cytotoxic agent to selectively kill non-stem cells, or if it is inherently the property of the efflux pumps to increase stem cell viability.

The patent has 2 independent claims:

A method of performing ex vivo expansion of a gene-modified hematopoietic stem cell comprising: (a) transducing a hematopoietic stem cell with a nucleic acid encoding an ABC transporter, wherein the hematopoietic stem cell is transduced to become a gene-modified hematopoietic stem cell; (b) expressing the transduced ABC transporter; and © culturing the gene-modified hematopoietic stem cell ex vivo wherein the gene-modified hematopoietic stem cell is expanded.

A gene-modified mammalian hematopoietic stem cell that has been (i) transduced with a nucleic acid encoding an ABC transporter selected from the group consisting of MDR1 and BCRP, wherein the ABC transporter is expressed; and (ii) expanded.

View this patent on the USPTO website.