Valproic Acid Significantly Improves CRISPR/Cas9-Mediated Gene Editing

Hanseul Park; Jaein Shin; Hwan Choi; Byounggook Cho; Jongpil Kim

doi:10.3390/cells9061447

Valproic Acid Significantly Improves CRISPR/Cas9-Mediated Gene Editing

Cells. 2020 Jun 10;9(6):1447. doi: 10.3390/cells9061447.

Authors

Hanseul Park^{1

2}, Jaein Shin^{1

2}, Hwan Choi^{1

2}, Byounggook Cho^{1

2}, Jongpil Kim^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Biomedical Engineering (BK21 Plus), Dongguk University, Seoul 04620, Korea.
² Laboratory of Cell reprogramming and Gene editing, Department of Chemistry, Dongguk University, Seoul 04620, Korea.

Abstract

The clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/Cas9 system has emerged as a powerful technology, with the potential to generate transgenic animals. Particularly, efficient and precise genetic editing with CRISPR/Cas9 offers immense prospects in various biotechnological applications. Here, we report that the histone deacetylase inhibitor valproic acid (VPA) significantly increases the efficiency of CRISPR/Cas9-mediated gene editing in mouse embryonic stem cells and embryos. This effect may be caused through globally enhanced chromatin accessibility, as indicate by histone hyperacetylation. Taken together, our results suggest that VPA can be used to increase the efficacy of CRISPR/Cas9 in generating transgenic systems.

Keywords: CRISPR/Cas9; embryo; gene editing; valproic acid.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Animals
CRISPR-Cas Systems / drug effects*
Gene Editing / methods*
Humans
Mice
Mice, Transgenic
Valproic Acid / pharmacology
Valproic Acid / therapeutic use*

Substances

Valproic Acid