Provided are methods of treatment, such as methods involving administering and/or determining dosing of, cell therapy, such as of cells engineered with a recombinant receptor, such as a T cell receptor (TCR) or chimeric antigen receptor (CAR). In some embodiments, the methods include determining a therapeutic range and/or window for dosing, for example, based on the estimated probabilities of risk of developing a toxicity and estimated probabilities of a treatment outcome or response, such as treatment, reduction nor amelioration of a sign or symptom thereof, or degree or durability thereof, following administration of the cell therapy or engineered cells. In some aspects, the methods involve administering an agent capable of modulating the engineered cells. Also provided are methods of ameliorating and/or treating a toxicity.

Disclosed herein is a recombinant nucleic acid, comprising: a mitochondrial targeting sequence; a mitochondrial protein coding sequence, wherein said mitochondrial protein coding sequence encodes a polypeptide comprising a mitochondrial protein; and a 3′UTR nucleic acid sequence. Also disclosed is a pharmaceutical composition comprising the recombinant nucleic acid and a method of treating Leber's hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON) using the pharmaceutical composition.

A method of treating cancerous tumors is presented herein. The method includes injecting an effective dose of a plasmid encoded for IL-12, B7-1 or IL-15 into a cancerous tumor and subsequently administering at least one high voltage, short duration pulse to the tumor. The electroporation pulses may be administered at least 700V/cm for a duration of less than 1 millisecond. The intratumor treatments with electroporation may be administered in at least a two-treatment protocol with the time between treatments being about 7 days. The intratumor treatments with electroporation may be administered in a three-treatment protocol with a time of four days between the first and second treatments and a time of three days between the second and third treatments. It was found that the intratumor treatments using electroporation not only resulted in tumor regression but also induced an immune memory response which prevented the formation of new tumors.

Use of cyclosporin H (CsH) or a derivative thereof for increasing the efficiency of transduction of an isolated population of cells by a viral vector and/or increasing the efficiency of gene editing of an isolated population of cells when transduced by a viral vector.

The present disclosure provides methods for altering a phenotypic characteristic of muscular dystrophy, treating muscular dystrophy, and/or alleviating a symptom of muscular dystrophy. Methods for integrating a polynucleotide sequence into the genome of a human cell are provided. The present methods result in alteration of the phenotypic characteristic of muscular dystrophy, treatment of muscular dystrophy, and/or alleviating a symptom of muscular dystrophy. Also provided are nucleic acids that include sequences for integrating a polynucleotide sequence of interest into the genome of a human cell. A transgenic human cell including site specific recombination sites is also disclosed.

A “localizable” systemic gene therapy system is provided substantially increasing the transfection efficiency of the gene vectors into targeted tissue cells and substantially reducing the escape of the gene vectors from the targeted tissue volume, such as would waste the vectors, promote undesired immune reactions, and/or incur prohibitive costs for the required dose of gene-containing virus vectors. In this regard, the invention provides a means to simultaneously achieve local electroporation and gene-containing vector injection in a portion of a vascularized organ. It includes two double-balloon catheters that create contained volumes in parallel blood vessels for the introduction of vectors with reduced loss along with electrodes providing electroporation of the cells in the same location where the vectors are injected.

A method for optogenetics experiments, based on wavefront shaping and including: calculating the transmission matrix between an input end and an output end of the multimode fiber under a fixed shape; implanting the output end into an intracranial space of an experimental subject; and performing wavefront compensation to a light to be input into the input end, according to the spatial position of the optical stimulation and the transmission matrix of the multimode fiber, to form a compensated expanded light, and inputting the compensated expanded light from the input end into the multimode fiber, such that the compensated expanded light, after being transmitted by the multimode fiber to the output end and output from the output end, is capable of focusing at the spatial position of the optical stimulation.

Provided is a novel vector for immunostimulation and methods of using same in immunotherapy, in particular cancer immunotherapy. The novel vector comprises nucleic acid sequences encoding 4-1BB ligand (4-1BBL, CD137 ligand), single chain IL-12 (sc IL-12) and IL-2, wherein the vector provides for an increased expression of 4-1BBL as compared to the expression levels of sc IL-12 and IL-2. Specifically, the nucleic acid sequences encoding 4-1BBL, sc IL-12 and IL-2 are organized in the vector in 5′ to 3′ orientation in a sequential order 1, 2, 3, with the proviso that the gene encoding sc IL-12 is not at position 1. Embodiments of the present disclosure include virus particles comprising the novel vector as well as cancer or immune cells transduced or transfected with the novel vector.

RNA encoding an immunogen is delivered to a large mammal at a dose of between 2 μg and 100 μg. Thus the invention provides a method of raising an immune response in a large mammal, comprising administering to the mammal a dose of between 2 μg and 100 μg of immunogen-encoding RNA. Similarly, RNA encoding an immunogen can be delivered to a large mammal at a dose of 3 ng/kg to 150 ng/kg. The delivered RNA can elicit an immune response in the large mammal.

Disclosed herein are molecules and pharmaceutical compositions that induce an insertion, deletion, duplication, or alteration in an incorrectly spliced mRNA transcript to induce exon skipping or exon inclusion. Also described herein include methods for treating a disease or disorder that comprises a molecule or a pharmaceutical composition that induces an insertion, deletion, duplication, or alteration in an incorrectly spliced mRNA transcript to induce exon skipping or exon inclusion.