Journal Article

Precise RNA editing by recruiting endogenous ADARs with antisense oligonucleotides

Blaha, Andreas, Merkle, Tobias, Reautschnig, Philipp, Li, Qin, Stafforst, Thorsten, Vogel, Paul, Wettengel, Jacqueline, Merz, Sarah, Li, Jin Billy

2019

Overview

Site-directed RNA editing might provide a safer or more effective alternative to genome editing in certain clinical scenarios. Until now, RNA editing has relied on overexpression of exogenous RNA editing enzymes or of endogenous human ADAR (adenosine deaminase acting on RNA) enzymes. Here we describe the engineering of chemically optimized antisense oligonucleotides that recruit endogenous human ADARs to edit endogenous transcripts in a simple and programmable way, an approach we call RESTORE (recruiting endogenous ADAR to specific transcripts for oligonucleotide-mediated RNA editing). We observed almost no off-target editing, and natural editing homeostasis was not perturbed. We successfully applied RESTORE to a panel of standard human cell lines and human primary cells and demonstrated repair of the clinically relevant PiZZ mutation, which causes α1-antitrypsin deficiency, and editing of phosphotyrosine 701 in STAT1, the activity switch of the signaling factor. RESTORE requires only the administration of an oligonucleotide, circumvents ectopic expression of proteins, and represents an attractive approach for drug development. Endogenous RNAs are edited using antisense oligos that recruit endogenous RNA-editing enzymes.

• Publisher: Nature Publishing Group US,Nature Publishing Group
• Subject: 3' Untranslated Regions / 631/337/1645/1944 / 631/45/500 / 631/45/603 / 631/61 / 631/61/391 / a1-antitrypsin / Adenosine / Adenosine deaminase / Adenosine Deaminase - genetics / Agriculture / Alpha 1-antitrypsin / alpha 1-Antitrypsin - genetics / alpha 1-Antitrypsin Deficiency - genetics / Amino Acid Motifs / Antisense oligonucleotides / Antisense RNA / Bioinformatics / Biomedical and Life Sciences / Biomedical Engineering/Biotechnology / Biomedicine / Biotechnology / Cell lines / Cells (Biology) / Cells, Cultured / Drug Design / Drug development / Ectopic expression / Editing / Enzymes / Gene editing / Genome editing / Genomes / Genomics / HeLa Cells / Hep G2 Cells / Homeostasis / Humans / Interferon-alpha - pharmacology / Letter / Life Sciences / Methods / Mutation / Oligonucleotides / Oligonucleotides, Antisense - genetics / Open Reading Frames / Organic chemistry / Phosphotyrosine / Phosphotyrosine - chemistry / Proteins / Ribonucleic acid / RNA / RNA Editing / RNA processing / RNA, Messenger - metabolism / RNA-Binding Proteins - genetics / Safety and security measures / Signal Transduction / Stat1 protein / STAT1 Transcription Factor - genetics