The CRISPR/Cas9 gene-editing system has been used to identify more than 120 synthetic-lethal gene interactions in cancer cells. These interactions could guide drug developers to new combination therapies that could selectively kill cancer cells and spare healthy cells.
Synthetic-lethal gene interactions may occur when certain pairs of mutated genes are present. When there is a mutation in either of these genes within a cell, the cell remains viable. But when there are mutations in both genes, the result is cell death. Synthetic-lethal gene interactions are especially important in the context of cancer therapies. If at least one of the genes in the interaction is specific to cancer, then a drug that inhibits the other gene would selectively kill only cancer cells.
The method appeared March 20 in the journal Nature Methods, in an article entitled “Combinatorial CRISPR–Cas9 Screens for De Novo Mapping of Genetic Interactions.”
“We developed a systematic approach to map human genetic networks by combinatorial CRISPR–Cas9 perturbations coupled to robust analysis of growth kinetics,” wrote the article’s authors. “We targeted all pairs of 73 cancer genes with dual guide RNAs in three cell lines, comprising 141,912 tests of interaction.”
In this article, the UC San Diego team described how they used the gene-editing technique CRISPR/Cas9 to simultaneously test for thousands of synthetic-lethal interactions. The researchers designed a CRISPR/Cas9 system with two guide RNAs: (1) one that targets a tumor suppressor gene that is commonly mutated in cancer and (2) one that targets a gene that could also be disrupted by a cancer drug. They deployed this system against 73 genes in three laboratory cell lines—human cervical cancer, lung cancer, and embryonic kidney cells. Then they measured cell growth and death.
“Numerous therapeutically relevant interactions were identified, and these patterns replicated with combinatorial drugs at 75% precision,” the authors noted. “From these results, we anticipate that cellular context will be critical to synthetic-lethal therapies.”
“The ovarian cancer drug olaparib works by synthetic lethality—it inhibits a gene that, when a BRCA gene is also mutated, kills just those cancer cells,” said John Paul Shen, M.D., clinical instructor and postdoctoral fellow at UC San Diego School of Medicine and Moores UCSD Cancer Center. “Many other cancers could likely be treated this way as well, but we don’t yet know which gene mutation combinations will be synthetic-lethal.”
They are scaling their cancer genetic networks maps so they can systematically identify new combination therapies.
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
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