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Engineering synucleinopathy‐resistant human dopaminergic neurons by CRISPR‐mediated deletion of the SNCA gene

Chen, Y; Dolt, KS; Kriek, M; Baker, T; Downey, P; Drummond, NJ; Canham, MA; ... Kunath, T; + view all (2019) Engineering synucleinopathy‐resistant human dopaminergic neurons by CRISPR‐mediated deletion of the SNCA gene. European Journal of Neuroscience , 49 (4) pp. 510-524. 10.1111/ejn.14286. Green open access

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Abstract

An emerging treatment for Parkinson's disease (PD) is cell replacement therapy. Authentic midbrain dopaminergic (mDA) neuronal precursors can be differentiated from human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) and human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). These laboratory‐generated mDA cells have been demonstrated to mature into functional dopaminergic neurons upon transplantation into preclinical models of PD. However, clinical trials with human fetal mesenchephalic cells have shown that cell replacement grafts in PD are susceptible to Lewy body formation suggesting host‐to‐graft transfer of α‐synuclein pathology. Here, we have used CRISPR/Cas9n technology to delete the endogenous SNCA gene, encoding for α‐synuclein, in a clinical‐grade hESC line to generate SNCA+/− and SNCA−/− cell lines. These hESC lines were first differentiated into mDA neurons, and then challenged with recombinant α‐synuclein preformed fibrils (PFFs) to seed the formation for Lewy‐like pathology as measured by phosphorylation of serine‐129 of α‐synuclein (pS129‐αSyn). Wild‐type neurons were fully susceptible to the formation of protein aggregates positive for pS129‐αSyn, while SNCA+/− and SNCA−/− neurons exhibited significant resistance to the formation of this pathological mark. This work demonstrates that reducing or completely removing SNCA alleles by CRISPR/Cas9n‐mediated gene editing confers a measure of resistance to Lewy pathology.

Type: Article
Title: Engineering synucleinopathy‐resistant human dopaminergic neurons by CRISPR‐mediated deletion of the SNCA gene
Location: France
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1111/ejn.14286
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.1111/ejn.14286
Language: English
Additional information: Copyright © 2018 The Authors. European Journal of Neuroscience published by Federation of European Neuroscience Societies and John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Keywords: CRISPR/Cas9n, disease‐resistant, dopaminergic neurons, hESCs, synucleinopathy
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology > Department of Neuromuscular Diseases
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10121882
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