| Title: | Base editing of trinucleotide repeats that cause Huntington's disease and Friedreich's ataxia reduces somatic repeat expansions in patient cells and in mice |
| Journal: | Nature Genetics |
| Published: | 26 May 2025 |
| Pubmed: | https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40419681/ |
| DOI: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-025-02172-8 |
| URL: | https://www.nature.com/articles/s41588-025-02172-8.pdf |
Publication 15219
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Abstract
Trinucleotide repeat (TNR) diseases are neurological disorders caused by expanded genomic TNRs that become unstable in a length-dependent manner. The CAG•CTG sequence is found in approximately one-third of pathogenic TNR loci, including the HTT gene that causes Huntington's disease. Friedreich's ataxia, the most prevalent hereditary ataxia, results from GAA repeat expansion at the FXN gene. Here we used cytosine and adenine base editing to reduce the repetitiveness of TNRs in patient cells and in mice. Base editors introduced G•C>A•T and A•T>G•C interruptions at CAG and GAA repeats, mimicking stable, nonpathogenic alleles that naturally occur in people. AAV9 delivery of optimized base editors in Htt.Q111 Huntington's disease and YG8s Friedreich's ataxia mice resulted in efficient editing in transduced tissues, and significantly reduced repeat expansion in the central nervous system. These findings demonstrate that introducing interruptions in pathogenic TNRs can mitigate a key neurological feature of TNR diseases in vivo.</p>
11 Keywords
- Animals
- Disease Models, Animal
- Frataxin
- Friedreich Ataxia
- Gene Editing
- Humans
- Huntingtin Protein
- Huntington Disease
- Mice
- Trinucleotide Repeat Expansion
- Trinucleotide Repeats
21 Authors
- Zaneta Matuszek
- Mandana Arbab
- Maheswaran Kesavan
- Alvin Hsu
- Jennie C. L. Roy
- Jing Zhao
- Tian Yu
- Ben Weisburd
- Gregory A. Newby
- Neil J. Doherty
- Muzhou Wu
- Shota Shibata
- Ana Cristian
- Y. Allen Tao
- Liam G. Fearnley
- Melanie Bahlo
- Heidi L. Rehm
- Jun Xie
- Guangping Gao
- Ricardo Mouro Pinto
- David R. Liu
1 Application
| Application ID | Title |
|---|---|
| 48511 | Reprocessing and joint calling of UKBB exomes with gnomAD, genotype-phenotype analysis and open release via dedicated portals |
Enabling scientific discoveries that improve human health