PMS1as a target for splice modulation to prevent somatic CAG repeat expansion in Huntington’s disease

Abstract

AbstractHuntington’s disease (HD) is a dominantly inherited neurodegenerative disorder whose motor, cognitive, and behavioral manifestations are caused by an expanded, somatically unstable CAG repeat in the first exon ofHTTthat lengthens a polyglutamine tract in huntingtin. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have revealed DNA repair genes that influence the age-at-onset of HD and implicate somatic CAG repeat expansion as the primary driver of disease timing. To prevent the consequent neuronal damage, small molecule splice modulators (e.g., branaplam) that targetHTTto reduce the levels of huntingtin are being investigated as potential HD therapeutics. We found that the effectiveness of the splice modulators can be influenced by genetic variants, both atHTTand other genes where they promote pseudoexon inclusion. Surprisingly, in a novel hTERT-immortalized retinal pigment epithelial cell (RPE1) model for assessing CAG repeat instability, these drugs also reduced the rate ofHTTCAG expansion. We determined that the splice modulators also affect the expression of the mismatch repair genePMS1, a known modifier of HD age-at-onset. Genome editing at specificHTTandPMS1sequences using CRISPR-Cas9 nuclease confirmed that branaplam suppresses CAG expansion by promoting the inclusion of a pseudoexon inPMS1, making splice modulation ofPMS1a potential strategy for delaying HD onset. Comparison with another splice modulator, risdiplam, suggests that other genes affected by these splice modulators also influence CAG instability and might provide additional therapeutic targets.