Nature· Robert F. Lusi·· 13 hours agoPickScore76
Engineered human Argonaute 2 for targeted C-to-U RNA base editing
In brief
Researchers fused human AGO2 with APOBEC3A and designed guide sequences that induce RNA circularization, creating the C-to-U RNA base editor ALTER. In the EGFP Y66H reporter system and at endogenous targets including PPIB, SMARCA4, ACTB and TYMS, ALTER-4 showed editing activity comparable to or higher than the dCas13-derived RESCUE-S and CURE-N, and lowering the transfection dose reduced off-target editing by about 25-fold.
Why it matters
ALTER builds a C-to-U RNA editor from fully human AGO2, trading off activity and off-targets against dCas13 approaches and adding a human-protein route.
Source: Nature