Scientists use chemically modified RNA CRISPR to promote gene knockout in human cells

In a study published today in the journal Cell Chemical Biology, the team explored a series of different RNA modifications and explained in detail how the modified guide gene has never modified the efficiency of CRISPR activity.

Improving the efficiency and "lifespan" of the CRISPR-Cas13 guide is of great value to researchers and drug developers, allowing better gene knockout and more time to study how this gene affects other genes in related pathways

"The delivery of the CRISPR RNA guide is challenging.

The laboratory’s previous research outlined the principles of the best Cas13 guiding design and was published in the journal Nature Biotechnology in March 2020.

The team also found that certain methylation and reverse terminator modifications also increased the activity of Cas13

"These revised guidelines further expand the toolbox of genome and transcriptome engineering

For example, the team's test to knock out the universal leader sequence fragment of the RNA virus SARS-CoV-2 in human cells can only be achieved using RNA-targeted CRISPR such as Cas13

Equally important, CRISPR-Cas13 can regulate gene expression without permanently changing the underlying DNA genome sequence, just like Cas9 or Cas12a and other DNA-targeted CRISPRs

Co-authors of cytochemical biology research include laboratory postdoctoral scientist Mateusz Legut; Anastasia Kadina, Ph.

Journal Reference :

1. Alejandro Méndez-Mancilla, Hans-Hermann Wessels, Mateusz Legut, Anastasia Kadina, Megumu Mabuchi, John Walker, G.