Gene editing via CRISPR/Cas9 leads to cytotoxicity and genomic instability

CRISPR/Cas9 is a commonly used and very precise gene editing technology, and its technology developed by Jennifer.

Scientists at IRB Barcelona, ​​led by ICREA researcher .

"Our work addresses an important issue of Cas9- tp53 -related toxicity, a recently controversial issue, and it also provides guidance on how to circumvent this iss.

"Regions in genes that are important for regulation or that have specific epigenetic marks are the regions most likely to trigger a p53 response and should therefore, as a general recommendation, be avoided," said Miguel-Martin álvarez, lead researcher on the stu.

"This unwanted consequence could raise the risk of genomic instability, which is highly undesirable in ex vivo CRISPR therapy, where cells from a patient are edited in the lab and then reintroduced into the patie.

TP53-dependent toxicity of CRISPR/Cas9 cuts is differential across genomic loci and can confound genetic screening