Project description:Absence of the dystrophin gene in Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) results in the degeneration of skeletal and cardiac muscles. Owing to advances in respiratory medicine, cardiomyopathy has become a significant aspect of the disease. While CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing technology holds great potential as a novel therapeutic avenue for DMD, little is known about the efficacy of correction of DMD using the CRISPR/Cas9 system in mitigating the cardiomyopathy phenotype in DMD. To define the effects of CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing on structural, functional and transcriptional dysregulation in DMD-associated cardiomyopathy. We generated induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) from a patient with a deletion of exon 44 of the DMD gene (ΔEx44) and his healthy brother. Here, we targeted exon 45 of the DMD gene by CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing to generate corrected DMD (cDMD) iPSC lines, wherein the DMD open reading frame was restored via reframing (RF) or exon skipping (ES). While DMD cardiomyocytes (CMs) demonstrated morphologic, structural and functional deficits compared to control CMs, CMs from both cDMD lines were similar to control CMs. Bulk RNA-sequencing of DMD CMs showed transcriptional dysregulation consistent with dilated cardiomyopathy, which was mitigated in cDMD CMs. We then corrected DMD CMs by adenoviral delivery of Cas9/gRNA and showed that postnatal correction of DMD CMs reduces their arrhythmogenic potential. Single-nucleus RNA-sequencing of hearts showed reduced transcriptional dysregulation in CMs and fibroblasts in corrected mice compared with DMD mice, consistent with reduced histopathologic changes.We show that CRISPR/Cas9-mediated correction of DMD ΔEx44 mitigates structural, functional and transcriptional dysregulation consistent with dilated cardiomyopathy irrespective of how the protein reading frame is restored. We show that these effects extend to postnatal editing in iPSC-CMs and mice. These findings provide key insights into the utility of genome editing as a novel therapeutic for DMD-associated cardiomyopathy.

Project description:Rationale – Absence of the dystrophin gene in Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) results in the degeneration of skeletal and cardiac muscles. Owing to advances in respiratory medicine, cardiomyopathy has become a significant aspect of the disease. While CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing technology holds great potential as a novel therapeutic avenue for DMD, little is known about the efficacy of correction of DMD using the CRISPR/Cas9 system in mitigating the cardiomyopathy phenotype in DMD. Objective – To define the effects of CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing on structural, functional and transcriptional dysregulation in DMD-associated cardiomyopathy. Methods and Results – We generated induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) from a patient with a deletion of exon 44 of the DMD gene (ΔEx44) and his healthy brother. Here, we targeted exon 45 of the DMD gene by CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing to generate corrected DMD (cDMD) iPSC lines, wherein the DMD open reading frame was restored via reframing (RF) or exon skipping (ES). While DMD cardiomyocytes (CMs) demonstrated morphologic, structural and functional deficits compared to control CMs, CMs from both cDMD lines were similar to control CMs. Bulk RNA-sequencing of DMD CMs showed transcriptional dysregulation consistent with dilated cardiomyopathy, which was mitigated in cDMD CMs. We then corrected DMD CMs by adenoviral delivery of Cas9/gRNA and showed that postnatal correction of DMD CMs reduces their arrhythmogenic potential. Single-nucleus RNA-sequencing of hearts showed reduced transcriptional dysregulation in CMs and fibroblasts in corrected mice compared with DMD mice, consistent with reduced histopathologic changes. Conclusions – We show that CRISPR/Cas9-mediated correction of DMD ΔEx44 mitigates structural, functional and transcriptional dysregulation consistent with dilated cardiomyopathy irrespective of how the protein reading frame is restored. We show that these effects extend to postnatal editing in iPSC-CMs and mice. These findings provide key insights into the utility of genome editing as a novel therapeutic for DMD-associated cardiomyopathy.

Project description:How transcriptional regulators are linked to cell biological effectors of morphogenesis is not fully understood. To elucidate this linkage, we use the C. elegans male tail-tip as a model. The tail-tip is made of four cells that, in males, undergo changes in shape and position during the L4 stage. The transcription factor DMD-3 is the master regulator of this Tail-Tip Morphogenesis (TTM). To identify other genes involved in TTM, the lab has previously performed a genome-wide RNAi screen and conducted an RNA-seq differential expression (DE) analysis using tail tips isolated from L4 wild-type and dmd-3 mutant males. This yielded candidates for genes downstream of and regulated by DMD-3 directly or indirectly. To identify the direct targets of DMD-3, we conducted male-specific DMD-3 ChIP-seq on whole worms during TTM. We identified 1755 DMD-3 binding peaks representing 6061 genes and a de novo DMD-3-associated binding motif, sharing similarity to the chromatin binding factor, EOR-1. Integrating this data with the previous RNAi screen and the DE analysis, we found 270 candidates for direct DMD-3 targets in tail-tip cells. To validate these candidates, we inserted GFP into the endogenous loci using CRISPR and evaluated the expression of the fusion proteins. We then deleted the sequences associated with DMD-3 ChIP peaks or the DMD-3-associated binding motif and assessed if this resulted in a protein expression change or defective TTM. We found four genes where deletion of a peak had an effect: The transcription factor FOS-1 is expressed in nuclei of male tail tips during TTM and in the vulva. Deletion of a DMD-3 peak or DMD-3-associated motif sites abolishes expression in male tail-tip nuclei. NMY-2 is localized as a “cap” at the tip of the tail during TTM. Removal of the peak reduces the level of tail tip NMY-2 expression. The pan-1 locus has two peaks. PAN-1::GFP is first seen in puncta at the cell surface, then at basal lateral membranes. Removal of the distal peak causes TTM defects in 10% of screened males, while removal of both peaks leads to global, previously reported, pan-1 phenotypes. HMR-1 is expressed at adherens junctions at the onset of TTM and later forms puncta at the cell surface. Deleting the peak has little effect on expression but results in epidermal bulges in both sexes, including the mail tail region. Because of the global phenotypes observed in peak mutants, we hypothesize the peak regions contain binding sites for other factors. Additionally, using extrachromosomal arrays, we tested and confirmed the DMD-3-associated motif’s contribution to wild-type TTM.

Project description:We applied whole-genome single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) arrays to define a comprehensive genetic profile of 23 esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC) primary tumor biopsies based on loss of heterozygosity (LOH) and DNA copy number changes. Alterations were common, averaging 97 (range 23-208) per tumor. LOH and gains averaged 33 (range 3-83) and 31 (range 11-73) per tumor, respectively. Copy neutral LOH events averaged 27 (range 7-57) per EAC. We noted 126 homozygous deletions (HDs) across the EAC panel (range 0-11 in individual tumors). Frequent HDs within FHIT (17/23), WWOX (8/23) and DMD (6/23) suggest a role for common fragile sites or genomic instability in EAC etiology. HDs were also noted for known tumor suppressor genes (TSGs) including: CDKN2A, CDKN2B, SMAD4 and GALR1, and identified PDE4D and MGC48628 as potentially novel TSGs. All tumors showed LOH for most of chromosome 17p, suggesting that TSGs other than TP53 maybe targeted. Frequent gains were noted around MYC (13/23), BCL9 (12/23), CTAGE1 (14/23) and ZNF217 (12/23). Thus, we have confirmed previous reports indicating frequent changes to FHIT, CDKN2A, TP53 and MYC in EAC and identified additional genes of interest. Meta analysis of previous genome-wide EAC studies together with the data presented here, highlighted consistent regions of gain on 8q, 18q and 20q, and multiple LOH regions on 4q, 5q, 17p and 18q, suggesting that more than one gene may be targeted on each of these chromosome arms. The focal gains and deletions documented here are a step towards identifying the key genes involved in EAC development. Keywords: High Density SNP array Here we use Illumina 317K whole-genome single-nucleotide polymorphism arrays to define a comprehensive allelotype of melanoma based on loss of heterozygosity (LOH) and copy number changes in a panel of 23 esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC) primary tumor biopsies. Each EAC was paired to normal squamous biopsy from 40328 (GSM266078) to generate the log_R_ratio.

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