Rapid and Reliable Quantification of Prime Editing Targeting Within the Porcine ABCA4 Gene Using a BRET-Based Sensor.

Stargardt disease (STGD) leads to blindness in children and young adults. So far, no curative therapy is available and gene augmentation therapies have not yet advanced to the clinics, in part, due to the limited packaging capacity of adeno-associated viruses used to transfer genes into photoreceptor cells. Prime editing offers a new perspective to treat mutations on the genomic level. A nicking variant of Cas9 fused to a reverse transcriptase complex with an elongated guideRNA force intracellular mismatch repair to correct the targeted mutation even in postmitotic cells such as photoreceptors in the eye. Using a custom-made bioluminescence resonance energy transfer (BRET)-based editing sensor in HEK293 cells, we tested 27 different prime editing guide RNAs (pegRNAs) and additional 4 nicking guide RNAs (ngRNAs) with regard to their efficiency to induce sequences changes in exon 43 of the porcine ATP binding cassette subfamily A member 4 (ABCA4) gene that eliminate a mutagenic adenine frameshift insertion, which has been associated with STGD in humans. We identified nine working pegRNAs, and in combination with ngRNAs, we achieved a correction rate of up to ≈92% measured with the BRET-based reporter system. Our data prove the high efficiency of prime editors to correct mutations and highlight the importance of optimal ngRNA design, thus offering a promising editing tool to correct ABCA4 mutations in the disease context.

Tetraethylphosphorodiamidate-Directed Metalation Group: Directed Ortho and Remote Metalation, Cross Coupling, and Remote Phospha Anionic Fries Rearrangement Reactions.

The linked directed ortho and remote metalation (DoM and DreM) and cross-coupling reactions of aryl phosphorodiamidates (Ar-OP(O)(NEt2)2) is reported. The o-iodo and o-boronato aryl tetraethylphosphorodiamidates 3, prepared by DoM, undergo orthogonal Ni- and Pd-catalyzed Suzuki-Miyaura cross coupling to furnish biaryls 4 and 5 in good to excellent yields. Silicon group protection of biaryl 4 via DoM followed by previously unobserved DreM phospha anionic Fries rearrangement affords biaryls 11 which, under acidic conditions, furnish oxaphosphorine oxides 12.