Combined +58 and +55 BCL11A enhancer Editing Yields Exceptional Efficiency, Specificity and HbF Induction in Human and NHP Preclinical Models

Abstract

Targeting the BCL11A erythroid enhancer by gene editing is a promising approach to fetal hemoglobin induction for beta-hemoglobinopathies. HbF levels vary widely among individuals, suggesting potential heterogeneity in HbF responses after therapeutic intervention. We hypothesize that maximizing both gene edit frequency and HbF induction potential could promote consistently favorable clinical outcomes. Here we compared CRISPR-Cas9 endonuclease editing of the BCL11A +58 enhancer with alternative gene modification approaches, including +55 erythroid enhancer editing alone or in combination with the +58 enhancer, as well as editing targeting the HBG1/2 promoter -115 BCL11A binding site and transduction by an shRNA knocking down the BCL11A transcript in erythroid precursors. We found that combined targeting of the BCL11A +58 and +55 enhancers with 3xNLS-SpCas9 and two sgRNAs resulted in the most potent HbF induction (52.4%±6.3%) of tested approaches (BCL11A +58 editing alone, 29.1%±3.9%; BCL11A +55 editing alone, 34.8±5.1%; HBG1/2 promoter editing, 34.1% ±5.4%; shmiR-BCL11A, 32.2%±4.4%; mock, 7.6%±3.4%). Based on assays in bulk and single cell derived erythroid cultures and xenografted immunodeficient mice, we found that disruption of core half E-box/GATA motifs at both the +58 and +55 enhancers was associated with greatest HbF induction, whether by small indels, interstitial 3.1 kb deletion, or 3.1 kb inversion. Rare gene edited clones with alleles that only partially disrupted these motifs were associated with intermediate HbF induction phenotypes. Combined editing of BCL11A +58 and +55 enhancers was compatible with HSC self-renewal in primary and secondary xenotransplant, with intact lymphoid, myeloid and erythroid repopulation. We conducted gene-edited cell product manufacturing process development and developed conditions using a MaxCyte electroporation instrument achieving mean 97.3±1.8% gene edits and 88.9%±6.4% viability 24 hours after electroporation in 3 engineering runs at clinical scale. We obtained similar results at small-scale with plerixafor-mobilized HSPCs from sickle cell disease (SCD) donors or G-CSF mobilized PBMCs from transfusion-dependent beta-thalassemia (TDT) donors, including 94.2%±4.4%, 99.5%±0.3% and 91.8%±6.3% of gene edits in engrafting cells from NBSGW 16 week mouse bone marrow of healthy, SCD and TDT donors respectively. Off-target analyses by pooled amplicon sequencing of 601 candidate off-target sites for the +58 and +55 targeting sgRNAs, nominated by a range of computational (CRISPRme) and experimental (GUIDE-seq and ONE-seq) methods, did not identify reference genome off-target edits at a sensitivity of 0.1% allele frequency. We evaluated +58/+55 enhancer combined targeting in nonhuman primates by performing ribonucleoprotein (RNP) electroporation in rhesus macaque mobilized peripheral blood CD34+ HSPCs with autologous re-infusion following busulfan myeloablation. We observed highly efficient gene edit frequency (85.2%, 88.8% and 84.9%) and durable HbF induction (26.4%, 57.5%, and 45.9% F-cells and 12.7%, 41.9%, and 28% gamma-globin) in the peripheral blood in 3 animals at most recent recorded time point post infusion (127, 78, and 54 weeks respectively). Single colony analyses and bulk ddPCR and unidirectional sequencing demonstrated that the long-term engrafting cells displayed a similar distribution of indels, 3.1 kb deletions, and 3.1 kb inversions as the input cell products. Erythroid stress due to hydroxyurea treatment, with or without phlebotomy, was associated with substantially augmented HbF responses (to 75.9%, 88.2%, and 57.8% F-cells and 47.9%, 68%, and 35.7% gamma-globin). No hematologic or other toxicities attributable to gene editing were observed.Together these results suggest that combined BCL11A +58 and +55 erythroid enhancer editing produces highly efficient on-target allelic disruption, erythroid-specific BCL11A downregulation, heightened HbF induction capacity compared to alternative approaches, preserved long-term multilineage engraftment potential by both human xenotransplant and rhesus autotransplant assays, and absence of evident genotoxicity, under clinically relevant SpCas9 RNP electroporation conditions. DisclosuresNo relevant conflicts of interest to declare.