International Journal of Molecular Sciences Review Genome Editing as a Treatment for the Most Prevalent Causative Genes of Autosomal Dominant Retinitis Pigmentosa Michalitsa Diakatou 1,2, Gaël Manes 1,2 , Beatrice Bocquet 1,2,3, Isabelle Meunier 1,2,3 and Vasiliki Kalatzis 1,2,* 1 Inserm U1051, Institute for Neurosciences of Montpellier, 80 Avenue Augustin Fliche, 34091 Montpellier, France;
[email protected] (M.D.);
[email protected] (G.M.);
[email protected] (B.B.);
[email protected] (I.M.) 2 University of Montpellier, 34095 Montpellier, France 3 National Reference Centre for Inherited Sensory Diseases, CHU, 34295 Montpellier, France * Correspondence:
[email protected]; Tel.: +33-(0)4-9963-6076; Fax: +33-(0)4-9963-6020 Received: 25 April 2019; Accepted: 22 May 2019; Published: 23 May 2019 Abstract: Inherited retinal dystrophies (IRDs) are a clinically and genetically heterogeneous group of diseases with more than 250 causative genes. The most common form is retinitis pigmentosa. IRDs lead to vision impairment for which there is no universal cure. Encouragingly, a first gene supplementation therapy has been approved for an autosomal recessive IRD. However, for autosomal dominant IRDs, gene supplementation therapy is not always pertinent because haploinsufficiency is not the only cause. Disease-causing mechanisms are often gain-of-function or dominant-negative, which usually require alternative therapeutic approaches. In such cases, genome-editing technology has raised hopes for treatment. Genome editing could be used to (i) invalidate both alleles, followed by supplementation of the wild type gene, (ii) specifically invalidate the mutant allele, with or without gene supplementation, or (iii) to correct the mutant allele.