Efficient gene correction of an aberrant splice site in ?-thalassaemia iPSCs by CRISPR/Cas9 and single-strand oligodeoxynucleotides.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Xiong Z
PROVIDER: S-EPMC6850948 | BioStudies | 2019-01-01
REPOSITORIES: biostudies
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Project description:?-Thalassemia is one of the most common genetic blood diseases and is caused by either point mutations or deletions in the ?-globin (HBB) gene. The generation of patient-specific induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) and subsequent correction of the disease-causing mutations may be a potential therapeutic strategy for this disease. Due to the low efficiency of typical homologous recombination, endonucleases, including TALENs and CRISPR/Cas9, have been widely used to enhance the gene correction efficiency in patient-derived iPSCs. Here, we designed TALENs and CRISPR/Cas9 to directly target the intron2 mutation site IVS2-654 in the globin gene. We observed different frequencies of double-strand breaks (DSBs) at IVS2-654 loci using TALENs and CRISPR/Cas9, and TALENs mediated a higher homologous gene targeting efficiency compared to CRISPR/Cas9 when combined with the piggyBac transposon donor. In addition, more obvious off-target events were observed for CRISPR/Cas9 compared to TALENs. Finally, TALENs-corrected iPSC clones were selected for erythroblast differentiation using the OP9 co-culture system and detected relatively higher transcription of HBB than the uncorrected cells. This comparison of using TALENs or CRISPR/Cas9 to correct specific HBB mutations in patient-derived iPSCs will guide future applications of TALENs- or CRISPR/Cas9-based gene therapies in monogenic diseases.
2015-01-01 | S-EPMC4496796 | BioStudies
Project description:OBJECTIVES:This study explored whether TALENs-mediated non-homologous end joining (NHEJ) targeting the mutation site can correct the aberrant ?-globin RNA splicing, and ameliorate the ?-thalassaemia phenotype in ?654 mice. MATERIAL AND METHODS:TALENs vectors targeted to the human ?-globin gene (HBB) IVS2-654C >T mutation in a mouse model were constructed and selected to generate double heterozygous TALENs+ /?654 mice. The gene editing and off-target effects were analysed by sequencing analysis. ?-globin expression was identified by RT-PCR and Western blot analysis. Various clinical indices including haematologic parameters and tissue pathology were examined to determine the therapeutic effect in these TALENs+ /?654 mice. RESULTS:Sequencing analysis revealed that the HBB IVS2-654C >T point mutation was deleted in over 50% of the TALENs+ /?654 mice tested, and off-target effects were not detected. RT-PCR and Western blot analysis confirmed the expression of normal ?-globin in TALENs+ /?654 mice. The haematologic parameters were significantly improved as compared with their affected littermates. The proportion of nucleated cells in bone marrow was considerably decreased, splenomegaly with extramedullary haematopoiesis was reduced, and significant decreases in iron deposition were seen in spleen and liver of the TALENs+ /?654 mice. CONCLUSION:These results suggest effective treatment of the anaemia phenotype in TALENs+ /?654 mice following deletion of the mutation site by TALENs, demonstrating a simple and straightforward strategy for gene therapy of ?654 -thalassaemia in the future.
2018-01-01 | S-EPMC6528953 | BioStudies
Project description:?-Thalassemia (?-Thal) is one of the most common genetic diseases in the world. The generation of patient-specific ?-Thal-induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), correction of the disease-causing mutations in those cells, and then differentiation into hematopoietic stem cells offers a new therapeutic strategy for this disease. Here, we designed a CRISPR/Cas9 to specifically target the Homo sapiens hemoglobin ? (HBB) gene CD41/42(-CTTT) mutation. We demonstrated that the combination of single strand oligodeoxynucleotides with CRISPR/Cas9 was capable of correcting the HBB gene CD41/42 mutation in ?-Thal iPSCs. After applying a correction-specific PCR assay to purify the corrected clones followed by sequencing to confirm mutation correction, we verified that the purified clones retained full pluripotency and exhibited normal karyotyping. Additionally, whole-exome sequencing showed that the mutation load to the exomes was minimal after CRISPR/Cas9 targeting. Furthermore, the corrected iPSCs were selected for erythroblast differentiation and restored the expression of HBB protein compared with the parental iPSCs. This method provides an efficient and safe strategy to correct the HBB gene mutation in ?-Thal iPSCs.
1000-01-01 | S-EPMC4974373 | BioStudies
Project description:The therapeutic use of patient-specific induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) is emerging as a potential treatment of ?-thalassemia. Ideally, patient-specific iPSCs would be genetically corrected by various approaches to treat ?-thalassemia including lentiviral gene transfer, lentivirus-delivered shRNA, and gene editing. These corrected iPSCs would be subsequently differentiated into hematopoietic stem cells and transplanted back into the same patient. In this article, we present a proof of principle study for disease modeling and screening using iPSCs to test the potential use of the modified U7 small nuclear (sn) RNA to correct a splice defect in IVS2-654 ?-thalassemia. In this case, the aberration results from a mutation in the human ?-globin intron 2 causing an aberrant splicing of ?-globin pre-mRNA and preventing synthesis of functional ?-globin protein. The iPSCs (derived from mesenchymal stromal cells from a patient with IVS2-654 ?-thalassemia/hemoglobin (Hb) E) were transduced with a lentivirus carrying a modified U7 snRNA targeting an IVS2-654 ?-globin pre-mRNA in order to restore the correct splicing. Erythroblasts differentiated from the transduced iPSCs expressed high level of correctly spliced ?-globin mRNA suggesting that the modified U7 snRNA was expressed and mediated splicing correction of IVS2-654 ?-globin pre-mRNA in these cells. Moreover, a less active apoptosis cascade process was observed in the corrected cells at transcription level. This study demonstrated the potential use of a genetically modified U7 snRNA with patient-specific iPSCs for the partial restoration of the aberrant splicing process of ?-thalassemia. Stem Cells Translational Medicine 2017;6:1059-1069.
1000-01-01 | S-EPMC5442829 | BioStudies
Project description:Human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) and genome editing provide a precise way to generate gene-corrected cells for disease modeling and cell therapies. Human iPSCs generated from sickle cell disease (SCD) patients have a homozygous missense point mutation in the HBB gene encoding adult ?-globin proteins, and are used as a model system to improve strategies of human gene therapy. We demonstrate that the CRISPR/Cas9 system designer nuclease is much more efficient in stimulating gene targeting of the endogenous HBB locus near the SCD point mutation in human iPSCs than zinc finger nucleases and TALENs. Using a specific guide RNA and Cas9, we readily corrected one allele of the SCD HBB gene in human iPSCs by homologous recombination with a donor DNA template containing the wild-type HBB DNA and a selection cassette that was subsequently removed to avoid possible interference of HBB transcription and translation. We chose targeted iPSC clones that have one corrected and one disrupted SCD allele for erythroid differentiation assays, using an improved xeno-free and feeder-free culture condition we recently established. Erythrocytes from either the corrected or its parental (uncorrected) iPSC line were generated with similar efficiencies. Currently ?6%-10% of these differentiated erythrocytes indeed lacked nuclei, characteristic of further matured erythrocytes called reticulocytes. We also detected the 16-kDa ?-globin protein expressed from the corrected HBB allele in the erythrocytes differentiated from genome-edited iPSCs. Our results represent a significant step toward the clinical applications of genome editing using patient-derived iPSCs to generate disease-free cells for cell and gene therapies. Stem Cells 2015;33:1470-1479.
2015-01-01 | S-EPMC4628786 | BioStudies
Project description:<h4>Background</h4>Thalassemia is the most common genetic disease worldwide; those with severe disease require lifelong blood transfusion and iron chelation therapy. The definitive cure for thalassemia is allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, which is limited due to lack of HLA-matched donors and the risk of post-transplant complications. Induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) technology offers prospects for autologous cell-based therapy which could avoid the immunological problems. We now report genetic correction of the beta hemoglobin (HBB) gene in iPSCs derived from a patient with a double heterozygote for hemoglobin E and ?-thalassemia (HbE/?-thalassemia), the most common thalassemia syndrome in Thailand and Southeast Asia.<h4>Methods</h4>We used the CRISPR/Cas9 system to target the hemoglobin E mutation from one allele of the HBB gene by homology-directed repair with a single-stranded DNA oligonucleotide template. DNA sequences of the corrected iPSCs were validated by Sanger sequencing. The corrected clones were differentiated into hematopoietic progenitor and erythroid cells to confirm their multilineage differentiation potential and hemoglobin expression.<h4>Results</h4>The hemoglobin E mutation of HbE/?-thalassemia iPSCs was seamlessly corrected by the CRISPR/Cas9 system. The corrected clones were differentiated into hematopoietic progenitor cells under feeder-free and OP9 coculture systems. These progenitor cells were further expanded in erythroid liquid culture system and developed into erythroid cells that expressed mature HBB gene and HBB protein.<h4>Conclusions</h4>Our study provides a strategy to correct hemoglobin E mutation in one step and these corrected iPSCs can be differentiated into hematopoietic stem cells to be used for autologous transplantation in patients with HbE/?-thalassemia in the future.
2018-01-01 | S-EPMC5828150 | BioStudies
Project description:BACKGROUND:?-Thalassemia is an inherited hematological disorder caused by mutations in the human hemoglobin beta (HBB) gene that reduce or abrogate ?-globin expression. Although lentiviral-mediated expression of ?-globin and autologous transplantation is a promising therapeutic approach, the risk of insertional mutagenesis or low transgene expression is apparent. However, targeted gene correction of HBB mutations with programmable nucleases such as CRISPR/Cas9, TALENs, and ZFNs with non-viral repair templates ensures a higher safety profile and endogenous expression control. METHODS:We have compared three different gene-editing tools (CRISPR/Cas9, TALENs, and ZFNs) for their targeting efficiency of the HBB gene locus. As a proof of concept, we studied the personalized gene-correction therapy for a common ?-thalassemia splicing variant HBBIVS1-110 using Cas9 mRNA and several optimally designed single-stranded oligonucleotide (ssODN) donors in K562 and CD34+ hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs). RESULTS:Our results exhibited that indel frequency of CRISPR/Cas9 was superior to TALENs and ZFNs (P?<?0.0001). Our designed sgRNA targeting the site of HBBIVS1-110 mutation showed indels in both K562 cells (up to 77%) and CD34+ hematopoietic stem cells-HSCs (up to 87%). The absolute quantification by next-generation sequencing showed that up to 8% site-specific insertion of the NheI tag was achieved using Cas9 mRNA and a chemically modified ssODN in CD34+ HSCs. CONCLUSION:Our approach provides guidance on non-viral gene correction in CD34+ HSCs using Cas9 mRNA and chemically modified ssODN. However, further optimization is needed to increase the homology directed repair (HDR) to attain a real clinical benefit for ?-thalassemia.
2018-01-01 | S-EPMC6236008 | BioStudies
Project description:CRISPR/Cas enhanced correction of the sickle cell disease (SCD) genetic defect in patient-specific induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (iPSCs) provides a potential gene therapy for this debilitating disease. An advantage of this approach is that corrected iPSCs that are free of off-target modifications can be identified before differentiating the cells into hematopoietic progenitors for transplantation. In order for this approach to be practical, iPSC generation must be rapid and efficient. Therefore, we developed a novel helper-dependent adenovirus/Epstein-Barr virus (HDAd/EBV) hybrid reprogramming vector, rCLAE-R6, that delivers six reprogramming factors episomally. HDAd/EBV transduction of keratinocytes from SCD patients resulted in footprint-free iPSCs with high efficiency. Subsequently, the sickle mutation was corrected by delivering CRISPR/Cas9 with adenovirus followed by nucleoporation with a 70?nt single-stranded oligodeoxynucleotide (ssODN) correction template. Correction efficiencies of up to 67.9% (?(A)/[?(S)+?(A)]) were obtained. Whole-genome sequencing (WGS) of corrected iPSC lines demonstrated no CRISPR/Cas modifications in 1467 potential off-target sites and no modifications in tumor suppressor genes or other genes associated with pathologies. These results demonstrate that adenoviral delivery of reprogramming factors and CRISPR/Cas provides a rapid and efficient method of deriving gene-corrected, patient-specific iPSCs for therapeutic applications.
2016-01-01 | S-EPMC4961958 | BioStudies
Project description:A cytosine to thymine mutation at nucleotide 654 of human ?-globin intron 2 (?IVS2-654) is one of the most common mutations causing ?-thalassaemia in Chinese and Southeast Asians. This mutation results in aberrant ?-globin pre-mRNA splicing and prevents synthesis of ?-globin protein. Splicing correction using synthetic splice-switching oligonucleotides (SSOs) has been shown to restore expression of the ?-globin protein, but to maintain therapeutically relevant levels of ?-globin it would require lifelong administration. Here, we demonstrate long-term splicing correction using U7 snRNA lentiviral vectors engineered to target several pre-mRNA splicing elements on the ?IVS2-654-globin pre-mRNA such as cryptic 3' splice site, aberrant 5' splice site, cryptic branch point and an exonic splicing enhancer. A double-target engineered U7 snRNAs targeted to the cryptic branch point and an exonic splicing enhancer, U7.BP?+?623, was the most effective in a model cell line, HeLa IVS2-654. Moreover, the therapeutic potential of the vector was demonstrated in erythroid progenitor cells derived from ?IVS2-654-thalassaemia/HbE patients, which showed restoration of correctly spliced ?-globin mRNA and led to haemoglobin A synthesis, and consequently improved thalassaemic erythroid cell pathology. These results demonstrate proof of concept of using the engineered U7 snRNA lentiviral vector for treatment of ?-thalassaemia.
2019-01-01 | S-EPMC6529457 | BioStudies
Project description:Beta-thalassemia is one of the most common recessive genetic diseases, caused by mutations in the HBB gene. Over 200 different types of mutations in the HBB gene containing three exons have been identified in patients with ?-thalassemia (?-thal) whereas a homozygous mutation in exon 1 causes sickle cell disease (SCD). Novel therapeutic strategies to permanently correct the HBB mutation in stem cells that are able to expand and differentiate into erythrocytes producing corrected HBB proteins are highly desirable. Genome editing aided by CRISPR/Cas9 and other site-specific engineered nucleases offers promise to precisely correct a genetic mutation in the native genome without alterations in other parts of the human genome. Although making a sequence-specific nuclease to enhance correction of a specific HBB mutation by homology-directed repair (HDR) is becoming straightforward, targeting various HBB mutations of ?-thal is still challenging because individual guide RNA as well as a donor DNA template for HDR of each type of HBB gene mutation have to be selected and validated. Using human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) from two ?-thal patients with different HBB gene mutations, we devised and tested a universal strategy to achieve targeted insertion of the HBB cDNA in exon 1 of HBB gene using Cas9 and two validated guide RNAs. We observed that HBB protein production was restored in erythrocytes derived from iPSCs of two patients. This strategy of restoring functional HBB gene expression will be able to correct most types of HBB gene mutations in ?-thal and SCD. Stem Cells Translational Medicine 2018;7:87-97.
2018-01-01 | S-EPMC5746148 | BioStudies