Thursday, December 1, 2016

Contracting CAG/CTG repeats using the CRISPR-Cas9 nickase

Cinzia Cinesi, Lorène Aeschbach, Bin Yang & Vincent Dion. Nature Communications 7, Article number: 13272 (2016) doi:10.1038/ncomms13272

Excising expanded GAA/TTC repeats in Friedreich Ataxia fibroblasts reactivated the expression of frataxin, improved the activity of the Fe-S-containing Aconitase, and increased cellular ATP levels. Together with our results, these studies offer great hope that Cas9 nickase-mediated shrinkage of expanded repeat tracts in somatic tissues may alleviate disease symptoms in patients.