FPR2 DNA Aptamers for Targeted Therapy of Wound Repair.

Chronic wounds represent a major health problem worldwide. Some of the available therapies based on recombinant proteins usually fail owing to the hostile environment found at the wound bed. Aptamers appear as an attractive alternative to recombinant factors owing in part to their stability, sensitivity, specificity, and low-cost production.

The RareDis corpus: A corpus annotated with rare diseases, their signs and symptoms.

Rare diseases affect a small number of people compared to the general population. However, more than 6,000 different rare diseases exist and, in total, they affect more than 300 million people worldwide. Rare diseases share as part of their main problem, the delay in diagnosis and the sparse information available for researchers, clinicians, and patients.

Correction of recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa by homology-directed repair-mediated genome editing.

Genome-editing technologies that enable the introduction of precise changes in DNA sequences have the potential to lead to a new class of treatments for genetic diseases. Epidermolysis bullosa (EB) is a group of rare genetic disorders characterized by extreme skin fragility. The recessive dystrophic subtype of EB (RDEB), which has one of the most severe phenotypes, is caused by mutations in COL7A1.

Efficient CRISPR-Cas9-Mediated Gene Ablation in Human Keratinocytes to Recapitulate Genodermatoses: Modeling of Netherton Syndrome.

Current efforts to find specific genodermatoses treatments and define precise pathogenesis mechanisms require appropriate surrogate models with human cells. Although transgenic and gene knockout mouse models for several of these disorders exist, they often fail to faithfully replicate the clinical and histopathological features of the human skin condition. We have established a highly efficient method for precise deletion of critical gene sequences in primary human keratinocytes, based on CRISPR-Cas9-mediated gene editing.

Humanization of Tumor Stroma by Tissue Engineering as a Tool to Improve Squamous Cell Carcinoma Xenograft.

The role of stroma is fundamental in the development and behavior of epithelial tumors. In this regard, limited growth of squamous cell carcinomas (SCC) or cell-lines derived from them has been achieved in immunodeficient mice. Moreover, lack of faithful recapitulation of the original human neoplasia complexity is often observed in xenografted tumors.

Clinically Relevant Correction of Recessive Dystrophic Epidermolysis Bullosa by Dual sgRNA CRISPR/Cas9-Mediated Gene Editing.

Gene editing constitutes a novel approach for precisely correcting disease-causing gene mutations. Frameshift mutations in COL7A1 causing recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa are amenable to open reading frame restoration by non-homologous end joining repair-based approaches. Efficient targeted deletion of faulty COL7A1 exons in polyclonal patient keratinocytes would enable the translation of this therapeutic strategy to the clinic.