AUTHOR=Barillà Cristina , Suzuki Shingo , Rab Andras , Sorscher Eric J. , Davis Brian R. 

TITLE=Targeted Gene Insertion for Functional CFTR Restoration in Airway Epithelium

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Genome Editing

VOLUME=4

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/genome-editing/articles/10.3389/fgeed.2022.847645

DOI=10.3389/fgeed.2022.847645

ISSN=2673-3439

ABSTRACT=<p>Cystic Fibrosis (CF) is caused by a diverse set of mutations distributed across the approximately 250 thousand base pairs of the <italic>CFTR</italic> gene locus, of which at least 382 are disease-causing (<ext-link ext-link-type="uri" xlink:href="http://CFTR2.org" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">CFTR2.org</ext-link>). Although a variety of editing tools are now available for correction of individual mutations, a strong justification can be made for a more universal gene insertion approach, in principle capable of correcting virtually all <italic>CFTR</italic> mutations. Provided that such a methodology is capable of efficiently correcting relevant stem cells of the airway epithelium, this could potentially provide life-long correction for the lung. In this Perspective we highlight several requirements for efficient gene insertion into airway epithelial stem cells. In addition, we focus on specific features of the transgene construct and the endogenous <italic>CFTR</italic> locus that influence whether the inserted gene sequences will give rise to robust and physiologically relevant levels of CFTR function in airway epithelium. Finally, we consider how <italic>in vitro</italic> gene insertion methodologies may be adapted for direct <italic>in vivo</italic> editing.</p>