journal article·2025-04Open access

Customizable virus-like particles deliver CRISPR–Cas9 ribonucleoprotein for effective ocular neovascular and Huntington’s disease gene therapy

Sikai Ling, Xue Zhang, Yao Dai, Zhuofan Jiang, Xujiao Zhou, Sicong Lu, Xiaoqing Qian, Jianping Liu, Niklas Selfjord, Tugce Munise Satir, Anders Lundin, Julia Liz Touza, Mike Firth, Natalie Van Zuydam, Bilada Bilican, Pinar Akcakaya, Jiaxu Hong, Yujia Cai

Nature Nanotechnology· Volume 20· Issue 4

Abstract

In vivo CRISPR gene editing holds enormous potential for various diseases. Ideally, CRISPR delivery should be cell type-specific and time-restricted for optimal efficacy and safety, but customizable methods are lacking. Here we develop a cell-tropism programmable CRISPR-Cas9 ribonucleoprotein delivery system (RIDE) based on virus-like particles. The efficiency of RIDE was comparable to that of adeno-associated virus and lentiviral vectors and higher than lipid nanoparticles. RIDE could be readily reprogrammed to target dendritic cells, T cells and neurons, and significantly ameliorated the disease symptoms in both ocular neovascular and Huntington's disease models via cell-specific gene editing. In addition, RIDE could efficiently edit the huntingtin gene in patients' induced pluripotent stem cell-derived neurons and was tolerated in non-human primates. This study is expected to facilitate the development of in vivo CRISPR therapeutics.
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Research context

OpenAlex topics: CRISPR and Genetic Engineering · Retinal Development and Disorders · Virus-based gene therapy research

SciVX discovery tags are terminology-based. OpenAlex topics are source-provided classifications.

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