Editing an α-globin enhancer in primary human hematopoietic stem cells as a treatment for β-thalassemia

• Autor(a) principal: Mettananda, Sachith
• Data de Publicação: 2017
• Outros Autores: Fisher, Chris A., Hay, Deborah, Badat, Mohsin, Quek, Lynn, Clark, Kevin, Hublitz, Philip, Downes, Damien, Kerry, Jon, Gosden, Matthew, Telenius, Jelena, Sloane-Stanley, Jackie A., Faustino, Paula, Coelho, Andreia, Doondeea, Jessica, Usukhbayar, Batchimeg, Sopp, Paul, Sharpe, Jacqueline A., Hughes, Jim R., Vyas, Paresh, Gibbons, Richard J., Higgs, Douglas R.
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.18/4791
• topic: Steam Cells; Beta-thalassemia; Alpha-thalassemia; Therapy for β-thalassemia; Doenças Genéticas; Doenças Raras; Regulação Génica; Edição do Genoma; CRISPR/Cas9; Tratamento beta-talassémia; Globinas; Terapia Génica; Hemoglobinopatias; Talassémias

β-Thalassemia is one of the most common inherited anemias, with no effective cure for most patients. The pathophysiology reflects an imbalance between α- and β-globin chains with an excess of free α-globin chains causing ineffective erythropoiesis and hemolysis. When α-thalassemia is co-inherited with β-thalassemia, excess free α-globin chains are reduced significantly ameliorating the clinical severity. Here we demonstrate the use of CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing of primary human hematopoietic stem/progenitor (CD34+) cells to emulate a natural mutation, which deletes the MCS-R2 α-globin enhancer and causes α-thalassemia. When edited CD34+ cells are differentiated into erythroid cells, we observe the expected reduction in α-globin expression and a correction of the pathologic globin chain imbalance in cells from patients with β-thalassemia. Xenograft assays show that a proportion of the edited CD34+ cells are long-term repopulating hematopoietic stem cells, demonstrating the potential of this approach for translation into a therapy for β-thalassemia.