Engineered nucleocytosolic vehicles for loading of programmable editors
Advanced gene editing methods have accelerated biomedical discovery and hold great therapeutic promise, but safe and efficient delivery of gene editors remains challenging. In this study, we present a virus-like particle (VLP) system featuring nucleocytosolic shuttling vehicles that retrieve pre-assembled Cas-effectors via aptamer-tagged guide RNAs. This approach ensures preferential loading of fully assembled editor ribonucleoproteins (RNPs) and enhances the efficacy of prime editing, base editing, trans-activators, and nuclease activity coupled to homology-directed repair in multiple immortalized, primary, stem cell, and stem-cell-derived cell types. We also achieve additional protection of inherently unstable prime editing guide RNAs (pegRNAs) by shielding the 3'-exposed end with Csy4/Cas6f, further enhancing editing performance. Furthermore, we identify a minimal set of packaging and budding modules that can serve as a platform for bottom-up engineering of enveloped delivery vehicles. Notably, our system demonstrates superior per-VLP editing efficiency in primary T lymphocytes and two mouse models of inherited retinal disease, highlighting its therapeutic potential.
Authors
- Carolline Rodrigues Menezes
- Andrea Schmidts (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7035-1584)
- Tanja Orschmann
- Egon Schiele
- Samuel W. Du (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9655-3659)
- Keith A. Nelson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7804-5418)
- E. Binder (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0004-3223-3041)
- Grażyna Palczewska (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4030-4685)
- F. Linde
- Gil G. Westmeyer (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7224-8919)
- Tobias Heinrich Santl
- Julian Geilenkeuser (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5714-7466)
- Krzysztof Palczewski (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0788-545X)
- Zachary J Engfer (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5411-456X)
- Arie Geerlof (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7295-9948)
- Dong‐Jiunn Jeffery Truong (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1722-8573)
- Niklas Armbrust (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7396-4949)
- Alexander Е. Berezin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0446-3999)
- Emily Steinmaßl
- Stephanie Victoria Wendel (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0293-6665)
- Christoph Gruber (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3770-8729)
- Sebastian Schmidt (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1912-9771)
- Yuchun Li
- Luisa Stroppel
- Niklas Wilhelm Warsing
- Naile Koleci
- Eleonora Risaliti
- Xiya Niu
Institutions
- University of California, Irvine (US)
- TUM Klinikum (DE)
- Helmholtz Zentrum München (DE)
- Technical University of Munich (DE)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Cell
- Published
- 2025-04-09
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2025.03.015
- Citations
- 26
- Primary Topic
- CRISPR and Genetic Engineering
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 20.96