Prime editing-mediated correction of the CFTR W1282X mutation in iPSCs and derived airway epithelial cells

A major unmet need in the cystic fibrosis (CF) therapeutic landscape is the lack of effective treatments for nonsense CFTR mutations, which affect approximately 10% of CF patients. Correction of nonsense CFTR mutations via genomic editing represents a promising therapeutic approach. In this study, we tested whether prime editing, a novel CRISPR-based genomic editing method, can be a potential therapeutic modality to correct nonsense CFTR mutations. We generated iPSCs from a CF patient homozygous for the CFTR W1282X mutation. We demonstrated that prime editing corrected one mutant allele in iPSCs, which effectively restored CFTR function in iPSC-derived airway epithelial cells and organoids. We further demonstrated that prime editing may directly repair mutations in iPSC-derived airway epithelial cells when the prime editing machinery is efficiently delivered by helper-dependent adenovirus (HDAd). Together, our data demonstrated that prime editing may potentially be applied to correct CFTR mutations such as W1282X.