Department of Biotechnology
inStem (Institute for Stem Cell Science and Regenerative Medicine)

Precise correction of a spectrum of β-thalassemia mutations in coding and non-coding regions by base editors.

Publication Type

Journal Article

Date of Publication

June 11, 2024

Journal

Molecular therapy. Nucleic acids

Volume/Issue

35/2

ISSN

2162-2531

β-thalassemia/HbE results from mutations in the β-globin locus that impede the production of functional adult hemoglobin. Base editors (BEs) could facilitate the correction of the point mutations with minimal or no indel creation, but its efficiency and bystander editing for the correction of β-thalassemia mutations in coding and non-coding regions remains unexplored. Here, we screened BE variants in HUDEP-2 cells for their ability to correct a spectrum of β-thalassemia mutations that were integrated into the genome as fragments of . The identified targets were introduced into their endogenous genomic location using BEs and Cas9/homology-directed repair (HDR) to create cellular models with β-thalassemia/HbE. These β-thalassemia/HbE models were then used to assess the efficiency of correction in the native locus and functional β-globin restoration. Most bystander edits produced near target sites did not interfere with adult hemoglobin expression and are not predicted to be pathogenic. Further, the effectiveness of BE was validated for the correction of the pathogenic HbE variant in severe β/β-thalassaemia patient cells. Overall, our study establishes a novel platform to screen and select optimal BE tools for therapeutic genome editing by demonstrating the precise, efficient, and scarless correction of pathogenic point mutations spanning multiple regions of including the promoter, intron, and exons.

Alternate Journal

Mol Ther Nucleic Acids

PubMed ID

38817682

PubMed Central ID

PMC11137594

Authors

Kirti Prasad
Nivedhitha Devaraju
Anila George
Nithin Sam Ravi
Joshua Paul
Gokulnath Mahalingam
Vignesh Rajendiran
Lokesh Panigrahi
Vigneshwaran Venkatesan
Kartik Lakhotiya
Yogapriya Periyasami
Aswin Anand Pai
Yukio Nakamura
Ryo Kurita
Poonkuzhali Balasubramanian
Saravanabhavan Thangavel
Shaji R Velayudhan
Gregory A Newby
Srujan Marepally
Alok Srivastava
Kumarasamypet M Mohankumar