Journal: Genome Biology
Article Title: Pamoic acid and carbenoxolone specifically inhibit CRISPR/Cas9 in bacteria, mammalian cells, and mice in a DNA topology-specific manner
doi: 10.1186/s13059-025-03521-w
Figure Lengend Snippet: The primary inhibitor screening and identification of FDA-approved drugs to inhibit the endonuclease activity of Cas9 with a purified enzyme-based activity assay. A The primary inhibitor screening for suppressing the endonuclease activity of SpyCas9 and the schematic diagram for the in vitro enzyme assay, bacteria, mammalian cells, or animal -based studies of Cas9 inhibitors. After a drug screening of 4607 compounds at 200 μM in the activity assay of Cas9, 31 compounds were found to dose-dependently inhibit the activity of Cas9 with IC 50 values less than 200 μM. Five reprensentative leads were selected for the efficacy and selectivity studies on purified enzyme, bacteria, mammalian cell or animal levels. B The effect of five leads as well as AcrIIA4 on the cleavage activity of Spy Cas9 to the circular plasmid. Pamoic acid, epirubicin, dalbavancin, carbenoxolone or docusate at the indicated concentrations was incubated with a complex of Spy Cas9 (375 nM) and sgRNA (400 nM) and tested under the standard assay conditions (Additional file 1:Fig.S1B-C;see the “Methods” section). The pcDNA3.1/CT- GFP plasmid (300 ng) containing a protospacer sequence (N20: 5’-CCAATTCTTGTTGAATTAGA-3’) and a 5’-TGG PAM (Additional file 1: Table S4) was used in the assay. AcrIIA4, a known anti-CRISPR protein inhibitor of Cas9 , was also tested under the standard assay conditions with an exception of using 22 °C for the assay instead of 37 °C, which was reported for AcrIIA4 to show a better inhibition to Spy Cas9 . In TBE buffer, the linear form of pcDNA3.1/CT- GFP plasmid (~ 7200 bp) migrates faster than the covalently closed circular DNA (cccDNA) form of the plasmid, which was reported previously and also validated by us (Additional file 1:Fig.S1B).Means ± SDs ( n = 3, biological replicates). C The effect of five leads as well as AcrIIA4 on the cleavage activity of SpyCas9 to the linear oligonucleotide substrate. Pamoic acid, epirubicin, dalbavancin, carbenoxolone, or docusate as well as AcrIIA4 was tested under the assay conditions described above ( B ) using a FAM-labeled 87 bp oligonucleotide as the substrate (10 nM; linear substrate, thereafter), which bears the same sequence of protospacer and PAM to the pcDNA3.1/CT- GFP plasmid ( B ). Eighty seven base pairs, the 5′-FAM-labeled substrate. Thirty base pairs, the FAM-labeled cleaved 5′-terminal fragment. Means ± SDs ( n = 3, biological replicates). D , E The effect of five leads on the enzymatic activity of SauCas9. Pamoic, epirubicin, dalbavancin, carbenoxolone, or docusate at the indicated concentrations were incubated with the complex of SauCas9 (100 nM) and sgRNA (100 nM) before the addition of the pcDNA3.1/CT- GFP plasmid (300 ng, D ) or a FAM-labeled 87 bp oligonucleotide (10 nM, E ). The two forms of DNA substrate of this assay share the same sequence of protospacer (N21, 5′-CTGGAGTTGTCCCAATTCTTG-3′) and 5′-TTGAAT PAM (Additional file 1: Table S4). The original images for circular plasmid and linear oligonucleotide are shown in the Additional file 1: Fig. S3F and S3G, respectively. Means ± SDs ( n = 3, biological replicates). DNA only, pcDNA3.1/CT- GFP plasmid ( B ), or 87 bp linear DNA ( C ) in the presence of assay buffer (see the “ ” section). The optical density of the DNA band for the linear form (agarose gels, B ) or for the 30 bp product (polyacrylamide gels, C ), as well as the area containing the linear, open circular, and supercoil bands of the plasmid ( B ) or the area containing the 87 bp and 30 bp products ( C ) was quantified using ImageJ software (NIH, Bethesda, MD). The cleavage activity of Cas9 was calculated by dividing the band density of the linear form ( B ) or 30 bp product ( C ) by the density of total area in the same lane (100%) and is shown as a percentage below the gel. The cleavage activity was normalized to that of the DMSO group (100%), as shown in the right panel. Statistical analysis was performed using one-way ANOVA with Tukey’s multiple comparisons test; * p < 0.05; ** p < 0.01; *** p < 0.001. The experiments were independently repeated three times, and representative results are presented
Article Snippet: All plasmids and primers used in the cloning experiments and oligonucleotides are summarized in Additional file 1: Table S2 and S3, respectively. pET-28b-Cas9-His and p6 × His_NLS-SaCas9 were obtained from Addgene (Cambridge, MA) for the recombinant expression of Spy Cas9 (Addgene, #47,327) [ ] and Sau Cas9 (Addgene, #101,086) [ ] in E. coli (Additional file 1: Table S2).
Techniques: Activity Assay, Purification, Enzyme Activity Assay, In Vitro, Enzymatic Assay, Bacteria, Drug discovery, Plasmid Preparation, Incubation, Sequencing, CRISPR, Inhibition, Labeling, Software