Factor h variants for treatment of disease

A recombinant vector having packaged therein an expression cassette comprising an engineered human complement factor H (hfH) gene operably linked to expression control sequences which direct expression thereof, wherein the hfH gene encodes a soluble hfH protein variant that retains complement regulatory function, wherein the hfH variant comprises:

• short consensus repeat (SCR) 1, 2, 3, 4, 19, 20 and one or more of SCR7, 17 and/or 18, wherein the hfH gene lacks a coding sequence for at least SCR5, SCR9, SCR10, SCR11, SCR12, SCR13, SCR14, SCR15, or SCR16.