Genetic engineering of vascular grafts to resist disease

1. A method for treating a mammal to resist early vein graft failure comprising,

a) introducing into endothelial cells of an autologous vein graft from the mammal an effective amount of at least one nucleic acid encoding one of the following agents: thrombomodulin (TM), NF-κB inhibitor, or a functional fragment of the TM; provided that when the agent is thrombomodulin, the nucleic acid further encodes the NF-κB inhibitor, wherein the introducing is performed ex vivo or by direct injection into the graft, and

b) transplanting the vein graft into the mammal when the introducino is performed ex vivo.

2. A method for engineering a vein graft of a mammal to resist early graft failure, the method comprising:

a) introducing into endothelial cells of an autologous vein graft from the mammal an effective amount of at least one nucleic acid encoding one of the following agents: thrombomodulin (TM), NF-κB inhibitor, or a functional fragment of the TM; provided that when the agent is thrombomodulin, the nucleic acid further encodes the NE-κB inhibitor, wherein the introducing is performed ex vivo or by direct injection into the graft, and,

b) transplanting the vein graft into the mammal when the introducing is performed ex vivo.

3. The method of claim 1 or 2 , wherein the introducing is performed on the graft in vivo.

4. The method of claim 1 or 2 , wherein the transplanted graft has sufficient activated protein C (APC) activation as determined by a standard protein C assay to prevent or treat the early graft failure.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the level of protein C activation as determined by a standard protein C detection assay of the treated graft is at least about one order of magnitude higher than a control vessel.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the higher protein C level of the treated vascular graft is detectable for at least about a week.

7. The method of claim 4 , wherein the early graft failure is accompanied by thrombosis.

8. The method of claim 1 or 2 , wherein the nucleic acid is inserted into a cassette.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the cassette includes a promoter.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the cassette is inserted into a vector.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the vector comprises sequence from an adenovirus, retrovirus, or adeno-associated virus.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the vector is a replication defective adenovirus.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the nucleic acid encodes at least one other anticoagulant molecule.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the anticoagulant molecule is thrombomodulin or a functional fragment thereof.

15. The method of claim 1 or 2 , wherein the mammal is susceptible to an inflammatory or immunological stimulus and the method further comprises administering a therapeutic amount of at least one anti-coagulant, antithrombotic, or thrombolytic drug to treat or prevent that stimulus.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein the drug is administered before step a) or after step b) of the method.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein the anti-coagulant drug is coumadin.

18. An engineered vein graft produced by the method of claim 2 .

19. The engineered vein graft of claim 18 , wherein the vessel is an autologous saphenous vein graft (SVG).

20. A method for treating a mammal to resist early vein graft failure comprising,

a) introducing into endothelial cells of an autologous vein graft from the mammal an effective amount of at least one nucleic acid encoding at least one of the following agents: thrombomodulin (TM), NF-κB inhibitor, or a functional fragment of the TM; provided that when the agent is thrombomodulin, the nucleic acid further encodes the NF-κB inhibitor, wherein the introducing is performed ex vivo or by direct injection into the graft, the nucleic acid being expressed from a recombinant adenovirus vector comprising a first adenovirus inverted terminal repeat (ITR) operably linked to the nucleic acid, and

b) transplanting the vein graft into the mammal when the introducing is performed ex vivo.

21. The method of claim 20 , wherein the recombinant adenovirus vector further comprises a cytomeglovirus promoter operably linked to the nucleic acid.

22. The method of claim 20 or 21 , wherein the recombinant adenovirus vector further comprises a second ITR operably linked to the nucleic acid.

23. The method of claim 20 , wherein the recombinant adenovirus vector is AdTMh5.

24. A method for treating a mammal to resist early vein graft failure comprising,

a) introducing into endothelial cells of an autologous vein graft from the mammal an effective amount of at least one nucleic acid encoding at least one of the following agents: thrombomodulin (TM), NF-κB inhibitor, or a functional fragment of the TM; provided that when the agent is thrombomodulin, the nucleic acid further encodes the NF-κB inhibitor, wherein the introducing is performed ex vivo or by direct injection into the graft, the nucleic acid being expressed from a recombinant adeno-associated virus (AAV) vector and operably linked to an adeno-associated virus inverted terminal repeat (ITR), and

b) transplanting the vein graft into the mammal when the introducing is performed ex vivo.

25. The method of claim 24 , wherein the AAV vector further comprises an operably linked Rous sarcoma virus long terminal repeat promoter.

26. The method of claim 25 , wherein the AAV vector is AAV 2 hTM.

27. The method of any one of claims 1 , 2 , 20 , or 24 further comprising introducing into cells of the graft a nucleic acid encoding thrombomodulin (TM) or a functional fragment thereof.

28. The engineered graft of claim 18 further comprising cells comprising an introduced nucleic acid encoding thrombomodulin (TM) or a functional fragment thereof.