delivery-cas9sgrna-ribonucleoprotein-complex-immortalized-primary

Delivery of the Cas9/sgRNA Ribonucleoprotein Complex in Immortalized and Primary Cells via Virus-like Particles ("Nanoblades")

The clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)-Cas system has democratized genome-editing in eukaryotic cells and led to the ...

CIRI, Centre International de Recherche en Infectiologie Univ Lyon, Inserm, U1111, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, CNRS, UMR5308, ENS de Lyon, F-69007, Lyon, France

Identification of new techniques to express proteins into mammal cells is of particular interest for both research and medical purposes. The present study describes the use of engineered vesicles to deliver exogenous proteins into human cells. We show that overexpression of the spike glycoprotein of the vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV-G) in human cells induces the release of fusogenic vesicles named gesicles. Biochemical and functional studies revealed that gesicles incorporated proteins from producer cells and could deliver them to recipient cells. This protein-transduction method allows the direct transport of cytoplasmic, nuclear or surface proteins in target cells. This was demonstrated by showing that the TetR transactivator and the receptor for the murine leukemia virus (MLV) envelope [murine cationic amino acid transporter-1 (mCAT-1)] were efficiently delivered by gesicles in various cell types. We further shows that gesicle-mediated transfer of mCAT-1 confers to human fibroblasts a robust permissiveness to ecotropic vectors, allowing the generation of human-induced pluripotent stem cells in level 2 biosafety facilities. This highlights the great potential of mCAT-1 gesicles to increase the safety of experiments using retro/lentivectors. Besides this, gesicles is a versatile tool highly valuable for the nongenetic delivery of functions such as transcription factors or genome engineering agents.

Protein transfer into human cells by VSV-G-induced nanovesicles.

Programmable nucleases have enabled rapid and accessible genome engineering in eukaryotic cells and living organisms. However, their delivery into target cells can be technically challenging when working with primary cells or in vivo. Here, we use engineered murine leukemia virus-like particles loaded with Cas9-sgRNA ribonucleoproteins (Nanoblades) to induce efficient genome-editing in cell lines and primary cells including human induced pluripotent stem cells, human hematopoietic stem cells and mouse bone-marrow cells. Transgene-free Nanoblades are also capable of in vivo genome-editing in mouse embryos and in the liver of injected mice. Nanoblades can be complexed with donor DNA for "all-in-one" homology-directed repair or programmed with modified Cas9 variants to mediate transcriptional up-regulation of target genes. Nanoblades preparation process is simple, relatively inexpensive and can be easily implemented in any laboratory equipped for cellular biology.

Philippe E. Mangeot

CIRI, Centre International de Recherche en Infectiologie Univ Lyon, Inserm, U1111, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, CNRS, UMR5308, ENS de Lyon, F-69007, Lyon, France

Delivery of the Cas9/sgRNA Ribonucleoprotein Complex in Immortalized and Primary Cells via Virus-like Particles ("Nanoblades")