Hemophilia A is one of the major inherited bleeding disorders caused by a
deficiency or abnormality in coagulation factor VIII (FVIII).
Hemophiliacs have been treated with whole plasma or purified FVIII
concentrates. The risk of transmitting blood-borne viruses and the cost
of highly purified FVIII are the major factors that restrict prophylaxis
in hemophilia therapy. One of the challenges created by the biotechnology
revolution is the development of methods for the economical production of
highly purified proteins in large scales. The present invention provides
improved mammary expression cassettes useful for the expression of genes
at high levels in the milk of transgenic animals. In particular, the
present invention provides recombinant signal peptide sequences derived
from a-lactalbumin and aS1-casein milk genes suitable for leading protein
secretion in the mammary gland. These gene cassettes are capable of
delivering different transgenic constructs which result in the production
of full-length or B domain-deleted therapeutic levels of biologically
active human FVIII in the transgenic animals in vivo. Within the scope of
the invention are also method for producing the transgenic non-human
mammal, such as mouse, rat, rabbit, goat, sheep, pig and bovine species,
capable of expressing human FVIII, and methods of making milk and methods
of identifying protein from the transgenic milk.