A CRISPR Alternative for Correcting Mutations That Sensitize Cells to DNA Damage

Fanconi anemia is a rare genetic disease in which essential DNA repair pathway genes are mutated, disrupting the DNA damage response. Patients with Fanconi anemia experience hematological complications, including bone marrow failure, and are predisposed to cancer. The only curative therapy for the hematological symptoms of Fanconi anemia is an allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant, in which a patient receives healthy stem cells from a donor. While this may cure or prevent some of the disease’s complications, stem cell transplantation can cause additional difficulties, including graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) and exacerbated cancer risk.¹

There is growing interest in applying genome editing technologies like CRISPR-Cas9 to correct Fanconi anemia mutations in patient-derived cells for autologous transplants, in which corrected stem cells are given back to the patient. However, this disease poses a unique challenge: How do you apply a genome editing technique in cells that are particularly sensitive to DNA damage? Fanconi ...