Miniaturization of CRISPRa plasmids for efficient delivery into renal epithelial cells and Pkd1 transactivation

Autosomal Dominant Polycystic Kidney Disease is caused by loss-of-function mutations in PKD1 or PKD2 genes, leading to reduced polycystin protein levels. Increasing PKD1 expression via CRISPR activation (CRISPRa) represents a promising therapeutic strategy; however, delivery of large CRISPRa plasmids into renal epithelial cells, and particularly primary cells, remains inefficient due to size-related barriers. We aimed to enable Pkd1 transactivation by miniaturizing CRISPRa plasmids into ~ 6 kb vectors using a one-pot method to enhance cellular uptake in mouse kidney epithelial cells.

Using type IIS restriction enzymes, we excised the mammalian expression cassette from full-length large 9-11 kB plasmids. The excised cassette was engineered to have complimentary overhangs. Thermocycling with T4 DNA ligase promoted circularization of the excised cassette (forming ~ 6kB mini-CRISPRa vectors), and T5 exonuclease digestion removed residual backbone fragments. These mini vectors substantially enhanced nucleofection efficiency from 16.10% ± 0.53 to 54.17% ± 2.10 in Pkd1^RC/- cells, and from 10.14% ± 1.40 to 31.27% ± 0.12 in primary Pkd1^RC/Cond; Pkhd1^Cre+ cells. Functionally, the mini-CRISPRa plasmid (mdCas9-VPR) with Pkd1-targeting sgRNAs induced robust endogenous Pkd1 upregulation compared with non-targeting controls: a 4.1-fold increase in Pkd1^RC/- cells (p < 0.001) and a 2.9-fold increase in primary cells (p < 0.001). Full-length plasmids produced no significant activation in either cell type.

Miniaturization of CRISPRa vectors with this one-pot approach overcomes delivery limitations in hard-to-transfect renal epithelial cells and enables efficient, functional Pkd1 activation, in vitro.