1. In vivo adenine base editing of PCSK9 in macaques reduces LDL cholesterol levels
- Author
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Andreas E. Moor, Nina Frey, Ying K. Tam, Denis V Victorov, Costanza Borrelli, Kevin Holden, Melissa K Dennis, Martin Jinek, Dominik Witzigmann, Rurika Oka, Susanne Kreutzer, Lukas Villiger, Gerald Schwank, Martina Hruzova, Lucas Kissling, Norbert Pardi, Daniela Lenggenhager, Markus Stoffel, Ruben van Boxtel, Zacharias Kontarakis, Beat Thöny, Sean C. Semple, Anastasia P. Kadina, John A. Walker, Johannes Häberle, Sabina Egli, Tanja Rothgangl, Noëlle Bakker, Martin Pacesa, Weihong Qi, Paulo J.C. Lin, Drew Weissman, Ophthalmology, Graduate School, ACS - Microcirculation, University of Zurich, Semple, Sean C, and Schwank, Gerald
- Subjects
Male ,10050 Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology ,Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology ,PCSK9 ,Mice ,Gene Editing ,biology ,Genetic engineering ,Targeted gene repair ,Liver ,LDL cholesterol ,1305 Biotechnology ,Molecular Medicine ,Proprotein Convertase 9 ,RNA, Guide, Kinetoplastida ,Biotechnology ,Adult ,medicine.medical_specialty ,Biomedical Engineering ,2204 Biomedical Engineering ,610 Medicine & health ,10071 Functional Genomics Center Zurich ,Bioengineering ,Article ,Base editing ,Abes ,Immune system ,In vivo ,10049 Institute of Pathology and Molecular Pathology ,Internal medicine ,10019 Department of Biochemistry ,medicine ,Animals ,2402 Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology ,Humans ,Messenger RNA ,1502 Bioengineering ,Adenine ,Point mutation ,Cholesterol, LDL ,biology.organism_classification ,Mice, Inbred C57BL ,genomic DNA ,Endocrinology ,10036 Medical Clinic ,1313 Molecular Medicine ,Macaca ,CRISPR-Cas Systems ,Lipoprotein - Abstract
Most known pathogenic point mutations in humans are C center dot G to T center dot A substitutions, which can be directly repaired by adenine base editors (ABEs). In this study, we investigated the efficacy and safety of ABEs in the livers of mice and cynomolgus macaques for the reduction of blood low-density lipoprotein (LDL) levels. Lipid nanoparticle-based delivery of mRNA encoding an ABE and a single-guide RNA targeting PCSK9, a negative regulator of LDL, induced up to 67% editing (on average, 61%) in mice and up to 34% editing (on average, 26%) in macaques. Plasma PCSK9 and LDL levels were stably reduced by 95% and 58% in mice and by 32% and 14% in macaques, respectively. ABE mRNA was cleared rapidly, and no off-target mutations in genomic DNA were found. Re-dosing in macaques did not increase editing, possibly owing to the detected humoral immune response to ABE upon treatment. These findings support further investigation of ABEs to treat patients with monogenic liver diseases., Base editors are effective and safe for cholesterol reduction in non-human primates., Nature Biotechnology, 39 (8), ISSN:1546-1696, ISSN:1087-0156
- Published
- 2021