Intratracheally administered LNA gapmer antisense oligonucleotides induce robust gene silencing in mouse lung fibroblasts
Shin, Minwook ; Chan, Io Long ; Cao, Yuming ; Gruntman, Alisha M ; Lee, Jonathan ; Sousa, Jacquelyn ; Rodríguez, Tomás C ; Echeverria, Dimas ; Devi, Gitali ; Debacker, Alexandre J ... show 10 more
Citations
Authors
Chan, Io Long
Cao, Yuming
Gruntman, Alisha M
Lee, Jonathan
Sousa, Jacquelyn
Rodríguez, Tomás C
Echeverria, Dimas
Devi, Gitali
Debacker, Alexandre J
Moazami, Michael P
Krishnamurthy, Pranathi Meda
Rembetsy-Brown, Julia M
Kelly, Karen
Yukselen, Onur
Donnard, Elisa
Parsons, Teagan J
Khvorova, Anastasia
Sontheimer, Erik J
Maehr, René
Garber, Manuel
Watts, Jonathan K
Student Authors
Faculty Advisor
Academic Program
UMass Chan Affiliations
Diabetes Center of Excellence
Horae Gene Therapy Center
Li Weibo Institute for Rare Diseases Research
Morningside Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences
Pediatrics
Program in Bioinformatics and Integrative Biology
Program in Molecular Medicine
RNA Therapeutics Institute
Document Type
Publication Date
Keywords
Subject Area
Embargo Expiration Date
Link to Full Text
Abstract
The lung is a complex organ with various cell types having distinct roles. Antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs) have been studied in the lung, but it has been challenging to determine their effectiveness in each cell type due to the lack of appropriate analytical methods. We employed three distinct approaches to study silencing efficacy within different cell types. First, we used lineage markers to identify cell types in flow cytometry, and simultaneously measured ASO-induced silencing of cell-surface proteins CD47 or CD98. Second, we applied single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) to measure silencing efficacy in distinct cell types; to the best of our knowledge, this is the first time scRNA-seq has been applied to measure the efficacy of oligonucleotide therapeutics. In both approaches, fibroblasts were the most susceptible to locally delivered ASOs, with significant silencing also in endothelial cells. Third, we confirmed that the robust silencing in fibroblasts is broadly applicable by silencing two targets expressed mainly in fibroblasts, Mfap4 and Adam33. Across independent approaches, we demonstrate that intratracheally administered LNA gapmer ASOs robustly induce gene silencing in lung fibroblasts. ASO-induced gene silencing in fibroblasts was durable, lasting 4-8 weeks after a single dose. Thus, lung fibroblasts are well aligned with ASOs as therapeutics.
Source
Shin M, Chan IL, Cao Y, Gruntman AM, Lee J, Sousa J, Rodríguez TC, Echeverria D, Devi G, Debacker AJ, Moazami MP, Krishnamurthy PM, Rembetsy-Brown JM, Kelly K, Yukselen O, Donnard E, Parsons TJ, Khvorova A, Sontheimer EJ, Maehr R, Garber M, Watts JK. Intratracheally administered LNA gapmer antisense oligonucleotides induce robust gene silencing in mouse lung fibroblasts. Nucleic Acids Res. 2022 Aug 26;50(15):8418-8430. doi: 10.1093/nar/gkac630. PMID: 35920332; PMCID: PMC9410908.