Cas9-mediated knockout of Ndrg2 enhances the regenerative potential of dendritic cells for wound healing

Cas9-mediated knockout of Ndrg2 enhances the regenerative potential of dendritic cells for wound healing. Henn, D., Zhao, D., Sivaraj, D., Trotsyuk, A., Bonham, C., Fischer, K., Kehl, T., Fehlmann, T., Greco, A., Kussie, H., Illouz, S., Padmanabhan, J., Barrera, J., Kneser, U., Lenhof, H., Januszyk, M., Levi, B., Keller, A., Longaker, M., & Gurtner, G. Nature Communications, 14, 08, 2023.

Paper doi abstract bibtex

Chronic wounds impose a significant healthcare burden to a broad patient population. Cell-based therapies, while having shown benefits for the treatment of chronic wounds, have not yet achieved widespread adoption into clinical practice. We developed a CRISPR/Cas9 approach to precisely edit murine dendritic cells to enhance their therapeutic potential for healing chronic wounds. Using single-cell RNA sequencing of tolerogenic dendritic cells, we identified N-myc downregulated gene 2 (Ndrg2), which marks a specific population of dendritic cell progenitors, as a promising target for CRISPR knockout. Ndrg2-knockout alters the transcriptomic profile of dendritic cells and preserves an immature cell state with a strong pro-angiogenic and regenerative capacity. We then incorporated our CRISPR-based cell engineering within a therapeutic hydrogel for in vivo cell delivery and developed an effective translational approach for dendritic cell-based immunotherapy that accelerated healing of full-thickness wounds in both non-diabetic and diabetic mouse models. These findings could open the door to future clinical trials using safe gene editing in dendritic cells for treating various types of chronic wounds.

@article{hen0123,
	author = {Henn, Dominic and Zhao, Dehua and Sivaraj, Dharshan and Trotsyuk, Artem and Bonham, Clark and Fischer, Katharina and Kehl, Tim and Fehlmann, Tobias and Greco, Autumn and Kussie, Hudson and Illouz, Sylvia and Padmanabhan, Jagannath and Barrera, Janos and Kneser, Ulrich and Lenhof, Hans-Peter and Januszyk, Michael and Levi, Benjamin and Keller, Andreas and Longaker, Michael and Gurtner, Geoffrey},
	year = {2023},
	month = {08},
	abstract = "{Chronic wounds impose a significant healthcare burden to a broad patient population. Cell-based therapies, while having shown benefits for the treatment of chronic wounds, have not yet achieved widespread adoption into clinical practice. We developed a CRISPR/Cas9 approach to precisely edit murine dendritic cells to enhance their therapeutic potential for healing chronic wounds. Using single-cell RNA sequencing of tolerogenic dendritic cells, we identified N-myc downregulated gene 2 (Ndrg2), which marks a specific population of dendritic cell progenitors, as a promising target for CRISPR knockout. Ndrg2-knockout alters the transcriptomic profile of dendritic cells and preserves an immature cell state with a strong pro-angiogenic and regenerative capacity. We then incorporated our CRISPR-based cell engineering within a therapeutic hydrogel for in vivo cell delivery and developed an effective translational approach for dendritic cell-based immunotherapy that accelerated healing of full-thickness wounds in both non-diabetic and diabetic mouse models. These findings could open the door to future clinical trials using safe gene editing in dendritic cells for treating various types of chronic wounds.}",
	pages = {},
	title = {Cas9-mediated knockout of Ndrg2 enhances the regenerative potential of dendritic cells for wound healing},
	volume = {14},
	journal = {Nature Communications},
	doi = {10.1038/s41467-023-40519-z},
    	url = {https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-40519-z}
}

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