SINEUP Non-Coding Rnas Rescue Defective Frataxin Expression and Activity in a Cellular Model of Friedreich’S Ataxia
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International School of Advanced Studies Area of Neuroscience Curriculum in Functional and Structural Genomics SINEUP non-coding RNAs rescue defective frataxin expression and activity in a cellular model of Friedreich’s Ataxia Thesis submitted for the degree of “Doctor Philosophiae” CANDIDATE SUPERVISOR Carlotta Bon Prof. Stefano Gustincich 12th October 2018 DECLARATION The work described in this thesis was carried out at SISSA (International School of Advanced Studies) in Trieste, between November 2014 and September 2018 with the exception of functional experiment on FRDA-derived lymphoblasts stably expressing miniSINEUPs, which were performed at the Department of Biomedicine and Prevention, Laboratory of Signal Transduction, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy, under the supervision of Ivano Condò, PhD. This work was supported by Telethon Grant GGP15004 to Professor Stefano Gustincich, Ivano Condò and Professor Antonello Mallamaci and by the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research (FIRB grant prot. RBAP11FRE9) to Professor Stefano Gustincich. Part of the work described in this thesis is included in the following papers: Structural determinants of the SINE B2 element embedded in the long non- coding RNA activator of translation AS Uchl1. Peter Podbevšek, Francesca Fasolo, Carlotta Bon, Laura Cimatti, Sabine Reißer, Piero Carninci, Giovanni Bussi, Silvia Zucchelli1, Janez Plavec*, and Stefano Gustincich*. Scientific Reportsvolume 8, Article number: 3189 (2018). doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-14908-6 SINEUP non-coding RNAs rescue defective frataxin expression and activity in a cellular model of Friedreich’s Ataxia. Bon C, Luffarelli R, Russo R, Fortuni S, Santulli C, Fimiani C, Persichetti F, Cotella D, Mallamaci A, Santoro C, Carninci P, Testi R, Zucchelli S, Condò I* and Gustincich S*. Manuscript submitted. TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................................. I ACRONYMS ........................................................................................................................ III INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................. 1 RNA THERAPEUTICS: THE PRESENT STATE .......................................................................... 1 Inhibitory RNAs ................................................................................................................ 2 AntiSense Oligonucleotides (ASOs) .......................................................................................................... 2 RNA interference (RNAi) .......................................................................................................................... 4 Anti-miRNA oligonucleotides (AntagoMIR) ............................................................................................ 6 Activatory RNAs ............................................................................................................... 7 Non-degradative ASOs .............................................................................................................................. 7 RNA activation (RNAa) ............................................................................................................................ 7 NMHV transcription factors ...................................................................................................................... 8 SINEUPS: A NEW FUNCTIONAL CLASS OF ANTISENSE LNCRNAS ........................................ 9 AS Uchl1 ......................................................................................................................... 12 Natural SINEUPs ........................................................................................................... 13 invSINEB2: structure and function .......................................................................................................... 14 Synthetic SINEUPs ......................................................................................................... 16 miniSINEUPs ................................................................................................................. 18 SINEUPs as a new platform for increasing gene expression ........................................ 19 FRIEDREICH’S ATAXIA ........................................................................................................ 21 Clinical features ............................................................................................................. 21 Genetic basis of the disease ........................................................................................... 23 FXN gene ................................................................................................................................................. 23 GAA triplet repeat expansion .................................................................................................................. 24 FXN transcription inhibition .......................................................................................... 26 Epigenetic changes associated with FRDA ............................................................................................. 28 Frataxin .......................................................................................................................... 29 Structure ................................................................................................................................................... 29 Processing ................................................................................................................................................ 30 The mystery of frataxin cellular function ................................................................................................ 31 Therapeutical approaches in FRDA: goals and objectives ........................................... 33 MATERIAL AND METHODS ........................................................................................... 37 RESULTS .............................................................................................................................. 43 1. SYNTHETIC SINEUP-FXN: DESIGN AND SCREENING ................................................ 43 2. SYNTHETIC MINISINEUP-FXN ARE ACTIVE IN VITRO ............................................... 48 3. PROTEIN RESCUE IN FRDA-DERIVED FIBROBLASTS .................................................. 50 4. THERAPEUTICAL PROTEIN RESCUE IN FRDA-DERIVED LYMPHOBLASTS .................. 52 5. FUNCTIONAL RESCUE OF DISEASE-ASSOCIATED PHENOTYPE .................................... 54 DISCUSSION ........................................................................................................................ 56 CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS ...................................................................................... 60 LIST OF PUBBLICATIONS ............................................................................................... 61 SUPPLEMENTARY FIRGURES & TABLES .................................................................. 62 SUPPLEMENTARY FIGURE S1 .............................................................................................. 62 SUPPLEMENTARY FIGURE S2 .............................................................................................. 63 SUPPLEMENTARY FIGURE S3 .............................................................................................. 65 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .................................................................................................... 66 BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................................................................. 67 ABSTRACT During the last decade RNA-based therapy had a burst of interest due to all undeniable advantages such as high selectivity, low off-target toxicity, and the potential scalability to a large repertory of untreatable human diseases. Most RNA therapeutic molecules are inhibitory RNAs and have been developed to down-regulate expression of pathogenic genes. Nevertheless, a large group of diseases would strongly benefit from the discovery of RNAs able to increase gene expression and restore physiological transcription and/or translation of a specific target when low expression is pathogenic. Recently, gene-specific transcriptional activating RNAs (RNAa) (1) and non- degradative antisense oligonucleotide (ASOs) (2) have been largely employed to increase the expression of selected genes. On the other hand, despite its great potential, long non-coding translational activation as therapeutic tool is still at its infancy. We have previously described SINEUPs, natural and synthetic antisense long non-coding RNAs, which promote translation of partially overlapping mRNAs through the activity of an embedded SINEB2 domain. In this study, we focused the attention on the SINEUP-mediated up-regulation as a possible treatment to rescue haploinsufficient gene-dosage. In this context, we developed SINEUPs for Friedreich’s ataxia (FRDA), a life- threatening disease with neuro- and cardio-degenerative progression (3) representing the most frequent type of inherited ataxia, and affecting more than 15,000 patients in Western countries (4). This monogenic disease is caused by the hyperexpansion of naturally occurring GAA repeats in the first intron of the frataxin (FXN) gene, encoding for frataxin, a protein implicated in the biogenesis