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THP-1 is a human monocyte-derived cell line isolated from a patient suffering from acute leukemia (AML), which displays phenotypic features closely resembling those of primary monocytes1. As compared to primary monocyte-derived macrophages, which do not divide and display both limited lifespan and inter-/intra-donor variability in phenotype, THP-1 cells can be cultured virtually forever and have a more homogeneous behavior that favors results reproducibility2,3,4,5,6. Notably, THP-1 cells can be differentiated towards a macrophage-like phenotype with phorbol-12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA), making them a widely used in vitro model to investigate the responses of monocytes/macrophages to inflammatory signals7,8,9,10,11,12,13 or infection by clinically relevant human pathogens, including HIV14,15,16. The possibility to genetically engineer THP-1 cells is of interest across many biology-related research areas.
Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats-CRISPR associated protein 9 (CRISPR-Cas9) is a prokaryotic adaptive immune system relaying on RNA-guided nuclease to degrade invading viral genomes, which has been reprogrammed as a genetic engineering tool17. The process of genome editing proceeds in three steps: recognition, cleavage, and repair. A single-guide RNA (sgRNA) recruits the Cas9 nuclease to a specific genomic locus through base pairing with its 20-bp guide sequence. The presence of a Protospacer Adjacent Motif (PAM) sequence directly 3' of the 20-bp genomic target sequence triggers the Cas9-mediated unwinding and cleavage on both DNA strands between positions 17 and 18 (3-bp 5' of the PAM). The resulting double-strand break (DSB) is processed by two major repair pathways. In the absence of a repair template bearing homology with the damaged locus, the error-prone Non-Homologous End Joining (NHEJ) pathway will introduce random nucleotide insertions and/or deletions (indels), potentially leading to frameshift mutations and/or the introduction of premature termination codons (PTC). In turn, PTC-containing mRNAs are targeted by degradation by the nonsense-mediated mRNA decay (NMD) pathway, ultimately disrupting protein expression/function18,19,20. Alternatively, the template-dependent Homology-Directed Repair (HDR) pathway can operate and faithfully repair the DSB. This mechanism has been harnessed to achieve precise gene editing, including knock-ins and base substitutions. It is worth noting that the cell cycle status is an important factor influencing the choice of DSB repair pathway. Indeed, NHEJ is active at all stages of the cell cycle, while HDR is mainly restricted to the S/G2 phases21.
THP-1 cells grow in suspension and are notoriously difficult to transfect with plasmid DNA, a procedure that possibly also alters their viability and/or differentiation capacity22,23. Transduction with HIV-1-based lentiviral vectors encoding both Cas9 and the sgRNA is often employed to knockout (KO) a gene of interest24. Integration of the Cas9/sgRNA cassette into the cellular genome ensures prolonged expression and efficient KO, but is also a persistent source of off-target effects25. Alternatively, the pre-assembled Cas9:sgRNA ribonucleoproteins (RNPs) are delivered by electroporation, a method involving the temporary formation of pores in both the plasma and nuclear membranes upon application of electric impulses. Preserving cell viability is an important challenge when undertaking this approach.
Here, a THP-1 cell line stably expressing GFP (THP-1_GFP) was produced to serve as a tool to establish a protocol to achieve efficient CRISPR-Cas9-based editing. After designing a strategy to inactivate the EGFP gene using three sgRNAs simultaneously (multi-guide approach), KO efficiency among several electroporation conditions was determined using GFP expression as a readout. Cell proliferation was monitored in parallel. Gene editing was confirmed by both a T7 endonuclease I (T7EI) assay and Sanger sequencing, followed by analysis with the Inference of CRISPR Edits (ICE) algorithm26. Parameters that yielded up to 95% GFP expression decrease, with THP-1 cells recovering normal growth rates after electroporation, were successfully employed to inactivate an endogenous gene (SAMHD1) and produce single-cell THP-1 clones.