Cerebrospinal Delivery of a Bidirectional Aav9 Vector Improves Optic Nerve and Retinal Pathology in a Sheep Model of Tay-Sachs Disease

Tay-Sachs disease (TSD) is a fatal neurodegenerative lysosomal storage disease. The Jacob sheep is the only large animal model of TSD, yet ocular pathology and the therapeutic potential of gene therapy remain poorly defined. Sheep cohorts included normal controls (n=3), untreated TSD-affected (n=4), intravenous AAV9-Bic_HexA/HexB-treated (n=3), and intracerebroventricular, cisterna magna, and lumbar intrathecal AAV9- Bic_HexA/HexB-treated sheep (CSF therapy; n=7). Retinal histopathology and immunohistochemistry, retinal whole-mount analyses for retinal ganglion cell (RGC) morphology and density, optic nerve evaluation with PPD semi-thin sections, qPCR assessment for vector genomes, and RNAscope probes for transgene expression were performed. Untreated TSD sheep exhibited RGCs with abundant microvesicular cytoplasmic expansion and optic nerve spheroids, with storage material variably staining with periodic acid-Schiff. Marked astrocytosis, microgliosis, and GM2 accumulation within RGCs were present. Optic nerve axon counts and RGC density were significantly reduced, and optic nerve damage scores increased, in untreated and IV-treated sheep, but were rescued with short-term CSF therapy. GM2 volume and signal intensity per RGC were significantly reduced following short-term CSF therapy. Minimal but detectable retinal vector genomes and transgene expression were observed. These findings demonstrate retinal and optic nerve pathology in Jacob sheep with TSD and AAV9 therapy.