[PDF][PDF] Five siRNAs targeting three SNPs may provide therapy for three-quarters of Huntington's disease patients

EL Pfister, L Kennington, J Straubhaar, S Wagh, W Liu… - Current Biology, 2009 - cell.com
EL Pfister, L Kennington, J Straubhaar, S Wagh, W Liu, M DiFiglia, B Landwehrmeyer…
Current Biology, 2009cell.com
Among dominant neurodegenerative disorders, Huntington's disease (HD) is perhaps the
best candidate for treatment with small interfering RNAs (siRNAs)[1–9]. Invariably fatal, HD
is caused by expansion of a CAG repeat in the Huntingtin gene, creating an extended
polyglutamine tract that makes the Huntingtin protein toxic [10]. Silencing mutant Huntingtin
messenger RNA (mRNA) should provide therapeutic benefit, but normal Huntingtin likely
contributes to neuronal function [11–13]. No siRNA strategy can yet distinguish among the …
Summary
Among dominant neurodegenerative disorders, Huntington's disease (HD) is perhaps the best candidate for treatment with small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) [1–9]. Invariably fatal, HD is caused by expansion of a CAG repeat in the Huntingtin gene, creating an extended polyglutamine tract that makes the Huntingtin protein toxic [10]. Silencing mutant Huntingtin messenger RNA (mRNA) should provide therapeutic benefit, but normal Huntingtin likely contributes to neuronal function [11–13]. No siRNA strategy can yet distinguish among the normal and disease Huntingtin alleles and other mRNAs containing CAG repeats [14]. siRNAs targeting the disease isoform of a heterozygous single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in Huntingtin provide an alternative [15–19]. We sequenced 22 predicted SNP sites in 225 human samples corresponding to HD and control subjects. We find that 48% of our patient population is heterozygous at a single SNP site; one isoform of this SNP is associated with HD. Several other SNP sites are frequently heterozygous. Consequently, five allele-specific siRNAs, corresponding to just three SNP sites, could be used to treat three-quarters of the United States and European HD patient populations. We have designed and validated selective siRNAs for the three SNP sites, laying the foundation for allele-specific RNA interference (RNAi) therapy for HD.
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