Exosome-mediated delivery of Cas9 ribonucleoprotein complexes for tissue-specific gene therapy of liver diseases

Abstract

CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing has emerged as a powerful therapeutic technology, but the lack of safe and efficient in vivo delivery systems, especially for tissue-specific vectors, limits its broad clinical applications. Delivery of Cas9 ribonucleoprotein (RNP) owns competitive advantages over other options; however, the large size of RNPs exceeds the loading capacity of currently available delivery vectors. Here, we report a previously unidentified genome editing delivery system, named exosome RNP , in which Cas9 RNPs were loaded into purified exosomes isolated from hepatic stellate cells through electroporation. Exosome RNP facilitated effective cytosolic delivery of RNP in vitro while specifically accumulated in the liver tissue in vivo. Exosome RNP showed vigorous therapeutic potential in acute liver injury, chronic liver fibrosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma mouse models via targeting p53 up-regulated modulator of apoptosis ( PUMA ), cyclin E1 ( CcnE1 ), and K (lysine) acetyltransferase 5 ( KAT5 ), respectively. The developed exosome RNP provides a feasible platform for precise and tissue-specific gene therapies of liver diseases.