Systematic Exploration of Optimized Base Editing gRNA Design and Pleiotropic Effects with BExplorer

Abstract

Base editing technology is being increasingly applied in genome engineering, but the current strategy for designing guide RNAs (gRNAs) relies substantially on empirical experience rather than a dependable and efficient in silico design. Furthermore, the pleiotropic effect of base editing on disease treatment remains unexplored, which prevents its further clinical usage. Here, we presented BExplorer, an integrated and comprehensive computational pipeline to optimize the design of gRNAs for 26 existing types of base editors in silico. Using BExplorer, we described its results for two types of mainstream base editors, BE3 and ABE7.10, and evaluated the pleiotropic effects of the corresponding base editing loci. BExplorer revealed 524 and 900 editable pathogenic single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) loci in the human genome together with the selected optimized gRNAs for BE3 and ABE7.10, respectively. In addition, the impact of 707 edited pathogenic SNP loci following base editing on 131 diseases was systematically explored by revealing their pleiotropic effects, indicating that base editing should be carefully utilized given the potential pleiotropic effects. Collectively, the systematic exploration of optimized base editing gRNA design and the corresponding pleiotropic effects with BExplorer provides a computational basis for applying base editing in disease treatment.

Keywords: Base editing; CRISPR/Cas9; Gene editing; Pleiotropy; gRNA design.