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other·infectious disease, public health, biomedical research, preclinical research·PMC10426224

Bioinformatic and literature assessment of toxicity and allergenicity of a CRISPR-Cas9 engineered gene drive to control Anopheles gambiae the mosquito vector of human malaria

Malaria Journal · 2 authors, 1 centre

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This preclinical study conducted a bioinformatic and literature-based environmental risk assessment.

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This preclinical study conducted a bioinformatic and literature-based environmental risk assessment. The authors interrogated the amino acid sequences of hCas9 and DsRed against known toxins and allergens in multiple databases, and compared the gRNA to microRNAs. They also searched the literature for evidence of toxicity or allergenicity. Results indicated hCas9 has no full-sequence homology to known allergens and shares homology with a prokaryotic toxin, but lacks evidence of animal or human toxicity. The gRNA had no matches to microRNAs, and potential environmental exposure was deemed negligible. The study concludes there is no convincing evidence that transgenic products from this gene drive would cause allergenicity or toxicity, supporting its environmental release for malaria vector control.

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other

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infectious disease

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AI pipeline

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ORIGINAL PAPER

PMC10426224

Bioinformatic and literature assessment of toxicity and allergenicity of a CRISPR-Cas9 engineered gene drive to control Anopheles gambiae the mosquito vector of human malaria

Malaria Journal

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ABSTRACT

Background Population suppression gene drive is currently being evaluated, including via environmental risk assessment (ERA), for malaria vector control. One such gene drive involves the dsxF CRISPRh transgene encoding (i) hCas9 endonuclease, (ii) T1 guide RNA (gRNA) targeting the doublesex locus, and (iii) DsRed fluorescent marker protein, in genetically-modified mosquitoes (GMMs). Problem formulation, the first stage of ERA, for environmental releases of dsxF CRISPRh previously identified nine potential harms to the environment or health that could occur, should expressed products of the transgene cause allergenicity or toxicity. Methods Amino acid sequences of hCas9 and DsRed were interrogated against those of toxins or allergens from NCBI, UniProt, COMPARE and AllergenOnline bioinformatic databases and the gRNA was compared with microRNAs from the miRBase database for potential impacts on gene expression associated with toxicity or allergenicity. PubMed was also searched for any evidence of toxicity or allergenicity of Cas9 or DsRed, or of the donor organisms from which these products were originally derived. Results While Cas9 nuclease activity can be toxic to some cell types in vitro and hCas9 was found to share homology with the prokaryotic toxin VapC, there was no evidence from previous studies of a risk of toxicity to humans and other animals from hCas9. Although hCas9 did contain an 8-mer epitope found in the latex allergen Hev b 9, the full amino acid sequence of hCas9 was not homologous to any known allergens. Combined with a lack of evidence in the literature of Cas9 allergenicity, this indicated negligible risk to humans of allergenicity from hCas9. No matches were found between the gRNA and microRNAs from either Anopheles or humans. Moreover, potential exposure to dsxF CRISPRh transgenic proteins from environmental releases was assessed as negligible. Conclusions Bioinformatic and literature assessments found no convincing evidence to suggest that transgenic products expressed from dsxF CRISPRh were allergens or toxins, indicating that environmental releases of this population suppression gene drive for malaria vector control should not result in any increased allergenicity or toxicity in humans or animals. These results should also inform evaluations of other GMMs being developed for vector control and in vivo clinical applications of CRISPR-Cas9. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12936-023-04665-5.

CITATION EXPORT

Alima Qureshi, John B. Connolly. Bioinformatic and literature assessment of toxicity and allergenicity of a CRISPR-Cas9 engineered gene drive to control Anopheles gambiae the mosquito vector of human malaria. Malaria Journal. (2023). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12936-023-04665-5

AUTHORS

2 · 1 CENTRES

Alima Qureshi, John B. Connolly

https://ror.org/041kmwe10grid.7445.20000 0001 2113 8111Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, Silwood Park, Sunninghill, Ascot, UK