CRISPRa-Mediated Upregulation of scn1laa During Early Development Causes Epileptiform Activity and dCas9-Associated Toxicity

Dravet syndrome (DS) is a monogenic epileptic encephalopathy caused by loss-of-function mutations in the voltage-gated sodium channel (VGSC) gene SCN1A. DS has an age of onset within the first year of life and severe disease prognosis. In the past years, it has been shown that upregulation of endogenous SCN1A can be beneficial in animal models for DS, but a complete rescue was not observed. We hypothesized that upregulation during early development that precedes onset of first symptoms might improve disease outcome. To test this hypothesis, we first evaluated the CRISPR activating method for early upregulation of voltage gated sodium channels during early development. We injected CRISPRa components, which target the proximal or distal promoter region of the VGSC gene scn1Laa in the yolk of one-cell stage zebrafish embryos. The effect of both dCas9-VPR and dCas9-VP64 was evaluated. Both CRISPRa fusions showed toxicity in the majority of embryos, with or without guide RNAs. The few embryos that survived developed normally, and dCas9-VPR induces an upregulation of scn1Laa mRNA until 24 hours after fertilization. At 5 days post fertilization, CRISPRa-injected embryos showed an epileptic phenotype, including locomotor burst movements, hyperactivity, and epileptiform activity originating from the brain. In addition to previously published scn1Laa and scn1Lab loss-of-function models, we conclude that gain of scn1Laa function can have an equally severe phenotype. Upregulation of scn1Laa in the current zebrafish model for DS, scn1Lab-KO, aggravated the disease phenotype, highlighting that early-stage upregulation using CRISPRa can lead to both toxicity and a worsening of the disease phenotype.

The influence of the iodinate contrast medium during CT: Single center experience - Development of two competitive in-house methods for automated quantification of DDSB

DNA damage induced by ionizing radiation may ultimately lead to cell death or initiate cancer cells development. Today it is difficult to estimate what the actual damage to the human body will be, given the fact that today in the world the number of diagnostic procedures using radiation and iodine contrast media is increasing, and the existence of a number of factors that can affect the radiation dose in vivo. At the same time, development of new methods is required, which can determine in a much shorter time what will be the effect of diagnostic radiation on the DNA molecule. For these purposes we develop two competitive inhouse methods for automated quantification of DNA double strand brakes (DDSB) in peripheral blood lymphocytes: immunofluorescence determining of γH2AX with stained microscopic slides and determining the occurrence of DDSB with the flow cytometry. Our initial results shown that computed tomography (CT) can cause damage in the DNA molecule in the form of DDSB, the existence of linear dependence with the increase in low and high range of CTDI and the number of γH2AX, and that iodine contrast media can increase the occurrence of DNA double strand brakes. Keywords: CT examinations, ICM, immunofluorescence, flow cytometry, DDSB