Abstract
Genetic diseases can be caused by monogenic diseases, which result from
a single gene mutation in the DNA sequence. Many innovative approaches
have been developed to cure monogenic genetic diseases, namely by genome
editing. A specific type of genomic editing, prime editing, has the
potential advantage to edit the human genome without requiring
double-strand breaks or donor DNA templates for editing. Additionally,
prime editing does not require a precisely positioned protospacer
adjacent motif (PAM) sequence, which offers flexible target and more
precise genomic editing. Here we detail a novel construction of a prime
editing extended guide RNA (pegRNA) to target mutated leptin receptors
in B6.BKS(D)-Leprdb/J mice (db/db mice). The pegRNA was then injected
into the flexor digitorum brevis (FDB) muscle of db/db mice to
demonstrate in vivo efficacy, which resulted in pegRNA mediated base
transversion at endogenous base transversion. Genomic DNA sequencing
confirmed that prime editing could correct the mutation of leptin
receptor gene in db/db mice. Furthermore, prime editing treated skeletal
muscle exhibited enhanced leptin receptor signals. Thus, the current
study showed in vivo efficacy of prime editing to correct mutant protein
and rescue the physiology associated with functional protein.