CRISPR/Cas9-mediated targeted gene correction in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis patient iPSCs

• Main Authors: Lixia Wang, Fei Yi, Lina Fu, Jiping Yang, Si Wang, Zhaoxia Wang, Keiichiro Suzuki, Liang Sun, Xiuling Xu, Yang Yu, Jie Qiao, Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte, Ze Yang, Yun Yuan, Jing Qu, Guang-Hui Liu
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: SpringerOpen 2017-04-01
• Series: Protein & Cell
• Subjects: ALS; CRISPR/Cas9; gene correction; iPSC disease modeling
• Online Access: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13238-017-0397-3
• ISSN: 1674-800X; 1674-8018

Abstract Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a complex neurodegenerative disease with cellular and molecular mechanisms yet to be fully described. Mutations in a number of genes including SOD1 and FUS are associated with familial ALS. Here we report the generation of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) from fibroblasts of familial ALS patients bearing SOD1 +/A272C and FUS +/G1566A mutations, respectively. We further generated gene corrected ALS iPSCs using CRISPR/Cas9 system. Genome-wide RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) analysis of motor neurons derived from SOD1 +/A272C and corrected iPSCs revealed 899 aberrant transcripts. Our work may shed light on discovery of early biomarkers and pathways dysregulated in ALS, as well as provide a basis for novel therapeutic strategies to treat ALS.