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Therapeutic manipulation of IKBKAP mis-splicing with a small molecule to cure familial dysautonomia.

Nature communications | 2021

Approximately half of genetic disease-associated mutations cause aberrant splicing. However, a widely applicable therapeutic strategy to splicing diseases is yet to be developed. Here, we analyze the mechanism whereby IKBKAP-familial dysautonomia (FD) exon 20 inclusion is specifically promoted by a small molecule splice modulator, RECTAS, even though IKBKAP-FD exon 20 has a suboptimal 5' splice site due to the IVS20 + 6 T > C mutation. Knockdown experiments reveal that exon 20 inclusion is suppressed in the absence of serine/arginine-rich splicing factor 6 (SRSF6) binding to an intronic splicing enhancer in intron 20. We show that RECTAS directly interacts with CDC-like kinases (CLKs) and enhances SRSF6 phosphorylation. Consistently, exon 20 splicing is bidirectionally manipulated by targeting cellular CLK activity with RECTAS versus CLK inhibitors. The therapeutic potential of RECTAS is validated in multiple FD disease models. Our study indicates that small synthetic molecules affecting phosphorylation state of SRSFs is available as a new therapeutic modality for mechanism-oriented precision medicine of splicing diseases.

Pubmed ID: 34301951 RIS Download

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None found

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Associated grants

  • Agency: NIGMS NIH HHS, United States
    Id: R37 GM042699
  • Agency: NIGMS NIH HHS, United States
    Id: T32 GM008444
  • Agency: NCI NIH HHS, United States
    Id: P30 CA008748
  • Agency: NHLBI NIH HHS, United States
    Id: F30 HL137326
  • Agency: NCI NIH HHS, United States
    Id: P30 CA045508
  • Agency: NIGMS NIH HHS, United States
    Id: R01 GM042699

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