Ultra-deep sequencing validates safety of CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing in human hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells

Authors:
Cromer MK, Barsan VV, Jaeger E, Wang M, Hampton JP, Chen F, Kennedy D, Xiao J, Khrebtukova I, Granat A, Truong T, Porteus MH
In:
Source: Nat Commun.
Publication Date: (2022)
Issue: 13(1): 4724
Research Area:
Cancer Research/Cell Biology
Immunotherapy / Hematology
Basic Research
Molecular Biology
Regenerative medicine
Cells used in publication:
CD34+ cell, human
Species: human
Tissue Origin: blood
Platform:
4D-Nucleofector® X-Unit
Experiment

Genome editing of HSPCs Chemically modified gRNAs used to edit HSPCs were purchased from Synthego (Menlo Park, CA, USA). The gRNA modifications added were the 2'-O-methyl-3'-phosphorothioate at the three terminal nucleotides of the 5' and 3' ends. All Cas9 protein (SpyFi S.p. Cas9 nuclease) was purchased from Aldevron, LLC (Fargo, North Dakota, USA). The RNPs were complexed at a Cas9:sgRNA molar ratio of 1:2.5 at 25 °C for 10 min prior to electroporation. HSPCs were resuspended in P3 buffer (Lonza, Basel, Switzerland) with complexed RNPs and electroporated using the Lonza 4D Nucleofector (program DZ-100). Cells were plated at 1 × 10^5 cells/mL following electroporation in the cytokine-supplemented media described above. 

Abstract

As CRISPR-based therapies enter the clinic, evaluation of safety remains a critical and active area of study. Here, we employ a clinical next generation sequencing (NGS) workflow to achieve high sequencing depth and detect ultra-low frequency variants across exons of genes associated with cancer, all exons, and genome wide. In three separate primary human hematopoietic stem and progenitor cell (HSPC) donors assessed in technical triplicates, we electroporated high-fidelity Cas9 protein targeted to three loci (AAVS1, HBB, and ZFPM2) and harvested genomic DNA at days 4 and 10. Our results demonstrate that clinically relevant delivery of high-fidelity Cas9 to primary HSPCs and ex vivo culture up to 10 days does not introduce or enrich for tumorigenic variants and that even a single SNP in a gRNA spacer sequence is sufficient to eliminate Cas9 off-target activity in primary, repair-competent human HSPCs.