Development of versatile allele-specific siRNAs able to silence all the dominant dynamin 2 mutations

Dominant centronuclear myopathy (CNM) is a rare form of congenital myopathy associated with a wide clinical spectrum, from severe neonatal to milder adult forms. There is no available treatment for this disease due to heterozygous mutations in the gene encoding Dynamin 2 (DNM2). Dominant mutations also cause rare forms of Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease and hereditary spastic paraplegia, and deleterious DNM2 overexpression was noticed in several diseases. The proof of concept for therapy by allele-specific RNA interference devoted to silence the mutated mRNA without affecting the normal allele was previously achieved in a mouse model and patient-derived cells, both expressing the most frequent mutation in CNM. In order to have versatile small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) usable regardless of the mutation, we have developed allele-specific siRNAs against two non-pathogenic single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) frequently heterozygous in the population. In addition, allele-specific siRNAs against the p.S619L DNM2 mutation, a mutation frequently associated with severe neonatal cases, were developed. The beneficial effects of these new siRNAs are reported for a panel of defects occurring in patient-derived cell lines. The development of these new molecules allows targeting the large majority of the patients harboring mutations or overexpression by only a few siRNAs.