ADAR RNA editing on antisense RNAs results in apparent U-to-C base changes on overlapping sense transcripts.

Despite hundreds of RNA modifications described to date, only RNA editing results in a change in the nucleotide sequence of RNA molecules compared to the genome. In mammals, two kinds of RNA editing have been described so far, adenosine to inosine (A-to-I) and cytidine to uridine (C-to-U) editing. Recent improvements in RNA sequencing technologies have led to the discovery of a continuously growing number of editing sites. These methods are powerful but not error-free, making routine validation of newly-described editing sites necessary. During one of these validations on DDX58 mRNA, along with A-to-I RNA editing sites, we encountered putative U-to-C editing. These U-to-C edits were present in several cell lines and appeared regulated in response to specific environmental stimuli. The same findings were also observed for the human long intergenic non-coding RNA p21 (hLincRNA-p21). A more in-depth analysis revealed that putative U-to-C edits result from A-to-I editing on overlapping antisense RNAs that are transcribed from the same loci. Such editing events, occurring on overlapping genes transcribed in opposite directions, have recently been demonstrated to be immunogenic and have been linked with autoimmune and immune-related diseases. Our findings, also confirmed by deep transcriptome data, demonstrate that such loci can be recognized simply through the presence of A-to-I and U-to-C mismatches within the same locus, reflective A-to-I editing both in the sense-oriented transcript and in the cis-natural antisense transcript (cis-NAT), implying that such clusters could be a mark of functionally relevant ADAR1 editing events.

RNA Editing Alterations Define Disease Manifestations in the Progression of Experimental Autoimmune Encephalomyelitis (EAE).

RNA editing is an epitranscriptomic modification, leading to targeted changes in RNA transcripts. It is mediated by the action of ADAR (adenosine deaminases acting on double-stranded (ds) RNA and APOBEC (apolipoprotein B mRNA editing enzyme catalytic polypeptide-like) deaminases and appears to play a major role in the pathogenesis of many diseases. Here, we assessed its role in experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), a widely used non-clinical model of autoimmune inflammatory diseases of the central nervous system (CNS), which resembles many aspects of human multiple sclerosis (MS). We have analyzed in silico data from microglia isolated at different timepoints through disease progression to identify the global editing events and validated the selected targets in murine tissue samples. To further evaluate the functional role of RNA editing, we induced EAE in transgenic animals lacking expression of APOBEC-1. We found that RNA-editing events, mediated by the APOBEC and ADAR deaminases, are significantly reduced throughout the course of disease, possibly affecting the protein expression necessary for normal neurological function. Moreover, the severity of the EAE model was significantly higher in APOBEC-1 knock-out mice, compared to wild-type controls. Our results implicate regulatory epitranscriptomic mechanisms in EAE pathogenesis that could be extrapolated to MS and other neurodegenerative disorders (NDs) with common clinical and molecular features.

Rapid, adaptable and sensitive Cas13-based COVID-19 diagnostics using ADESSO.

During the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, PCR testing and antigen tests have proven critical for helping to stem the spread of its causative agent, SARS-CoV-2. However, these methods suffer from either general applicability and/or sensitivity. Moreover, the emergence of variant strains creates the need for flexibility to correctly and efficiently diagnose the presence of substrains. To address these needs we developed the diagnostic test ADESSO (Accurate Detection of Evolving SARS-CoV-2 through SHERLOCK (Specific High Sensitivity Enzymatic Reporter UnLOCKing) Optimization) which employs Cas13 to diagnose patients in 1 h without sophisticated equipment. Using an extensive panel of clinical samples, we demonstrate that ADESSO correctly identifies infected individuals at a sensitivity and specificity comparable to RT-qPCR on extracted RNA and higher than antigen tests for unextracted samples. Altogether, ADESSO is a fast, sensitive and cheap method that can be applied in a point of care setting to diagnose COVID-19 and can be quickly adjusted to detect new variants.