Focused ultrasound and microbubble-mediated delivery of CRISPR-Cas9 ribonucleoprotein to human induced pluripotent stem cells.

CRISPR-Cas9 ribonucleoproteins (RNPs) have been heavily considered for gene therapy due to their high on-target efficiency, rapid activity, and lack of insertional mutagenesis relative to other CRISPR-Cas9 delivery formats. Genetic diseases such as hypertrophic cardiomyopathy currently lack effective treatment strategies and are prime targets for CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing technology. However, current in vivo delivery strategies for Cas9 pose risks of unwanted immunogenic responses. This proof-of-concept study aimed to demonstrate that focused ultrasound (FUS) in combination with microbubbles can be used to deliver Cas9-sgRNA (single-guide RNA) RNPs and functionally edit human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) in vitro, a model system that can be expanded to cardiovascular research via hiPSC-derived cardiomyocytes. Here, we first determine acoustic conditions suitable for the viable delivery of large proteins to hiPSCs with clinical Definity microbubble agents using our customized experimental platform. From here, we delivered Cas9-sgRNA RNP complexes targeting the EGFP (enhanced green fluorescent protein) gene to EGFP-expressing hiPSCs for EGFP knockout. Simultaneous acoustic cavitation detection during treatment confirmed a strong correlation between microbubble disruption and viable FUS-mediated protein delivery in hiPSCs. This study shows for the first time the potential for an FUS-mediated technique for targeted and precise CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing in human stem cells.