Targeted delivery of CRISPR interference system against Fabp4 to white adipocytes ameliorates obesity, inflammation, hepatic steatosis, and insulin resistance

  1. Yong-Hee Kim1,2
  1. 1Department of Bioengineering, Institute for Bioengineering and Biopharamceutical Research Hanyang University, 04763 Seoul, South Korea;
  2. 2BK21 Plus Future Biopharmaceutical Human Resource Team, Hanyang University, 04763 Seoul, South Korea
  1. 3 These authors contributed equally to this work.

  • Corresponding author: yongheekim{at}hanyang.ac.kr
  • Abstract

    Obesity is an increasing pathophysiological problem in developed societies. Despite all major progress in understanding molecular mechanisms of obesity, currently available anti-obesity drugs have shown limited efficacy with severe side effects. CRISPR interference (CRISPRi) mechanism based on catalytically dead Cas9 (dCas9) and single guide RNA (sgRNA) was combined with a targeted nonviral gene delivery system to treat obesity and obesity-induced type 2 diabetes. A fusion peptide targeting a vascular and cellular marker of adipose tissue, prohibitin, was developed by conjugation of adipocyte targeting sequence (CKGGRAKDC) to 9-mer arginine (ATS-9R). (dCas9/sgFabp4) + ATS-9R oligoplexes showed effective condensation and selective delivery into mature adipocytes. Targeted delivery of the CRISPRi system against Fabp4 to white adipocytes by ATS-9R induced effective silencing of Fabp4, resulting in reduction of body weight and inflammation and restoration of hepatic steatosis in obese mice. This RNA-guided DNA recognition platform provides a simple and safe approach to regress and treat obesity and obesity-induced metabolic syndromes.

    Footnotes

    • Received November 28, 2018.
    • Accepted July 23, 2019.

    This article is distributed exclusively by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press for the first six months after the full-issue publication date (see http://genome.cshlp.org/site/misc/terms.xhtml). After six months, it is available under a Creative Commons License (Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International), as described at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.

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