Phetcharat PhanthongSuparerk BorwornpinyoNarisorn KitiyanantNatee JearawiriyapaisarnLalana NuntakarnJirawat SaetanTiwaporn NualkaewKhanit Sa-NgiamsuntornUsanarat AnurathapanAndras DinnyesYindee KitiyanantSuradej HongengMahidol UniversityPrince of Songkla UniversityBioTalentum Ltd.Szent István Egyetem2018-12-212019-03-142018-12-212019-03-142017-04-01Stem Cells Translational Medicine. Vol.6, No.4 (2017), 1059-106921576580215765642-s2.0-85017535492https://repository.li.mahidol.ac.th/handle/20.500.14594/41933© AlphaMed Press and 2017 The Authors. The therapeutic use of patient-specific induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) is emerging as a potential treatment of b-thalassemia. Ideally, patient-specific iPSCs would be genetically corrected by various approaches to treat b-thalassemia including lentiviral gene transfer, lentivirus-delivered shRNA, and gene editing. These corrected iPSCs would be subsequently differentiated into hematopoietic stem cells and transplanted back into the same patient. In this article, we present a proof of principle study for disease modeling and screening using iPSCs to test the potential use of the modified U7 small nuclear (sn) RNA to correct a splice defect in IVS2-654 b-thalassemia. In this case, the aberration results from a mutation in the human b-globin intron 2 causing an aberrant splicing of b-globin pre-mRNA and preventing synthesis of functional b-globin protein. The iPSCs (derived from mesenchymal stromal cells from a patient with IVS2-654 b-thalassemia/hemoglobin (Hb) E) were transduced with a lentivirus carrying a modified U7 snRNA targeting an IVS2-654 b-globin pre-mRNA in order to restore the correct splicing. Erythroblasts differentiated from the transduced iPSCs expressed high level of correctly spliced b-globin mRNA suggesting that the modified U7 snRNA was expressed and mediated splicing correction of IVS2-654 b-globin pre-mRNA in these cells. Moreover, a less active apoptosis cascade process was observed in the corrected cells at transcription level. This study demonstrated the potential use of a genetically modified U7 snRNA with patient-specific iPSCs for the partial restoration of the aberrant splicing process of b-thalassemia.Mahidol UniversityBiochemistry, Genetics and Molecular BiologyArticleSCOPUS10.1002/sctm.16-0121