Removal of promoter CpG methylation by epigenome editing reverses HBG silencing
- Henry W. Bell
- Ruopeng Feng
- Manan Shah
- Yu Yao
- James Douglas
- Phillip A. Doerfler
- Thiyagaraj Mayuranathan
- Michael F. O’Dea
- Yichao Li
- Yong-Dong Wang
- Jingjing Zhang
- Joel P. Mackay
- Yong Cheng
- Kate G. R. Quinlan
- Mitchell J. Weiss
- Merlin Crossley
2025-07-27
β-hemoglobinopathies caused by mutations in adult-expressed HBB can be treated by re-activating the adjacent paralogous genes HBG1 and HBG2 (HBG) , which are normally silenced perinatally. Although HBG expression is induced by global demethylating drugs, their mechanism is poorly understood, and toxicity limits their use. We identify the DNMT1-associated maintenance methylation protein UHRF1 as a mediator of HBG repression through a CRISPR/Cas9 screen. Loss of UHRF1 in the adult-type erythroid cell line HUDEP2 causes global demethylation and HBG activation that is reversed upon localized promoter re-methylation. Conversely, targeted demethylation of the HBG promoters activates their genes in HUDEP2 or primary CD34 + cell-derived erythroblasts. Mutation of MBD2, a CpG-methylation reading component of the NuRD co-repressor complex, recapitulates the effects of promoter demethylation. Our findings demonstrate that localized CpGmethylation at the HBG promoters facilitates gene silencing and identify a potential therapeutic approach for β-hemoglobinopathies via epigenomic editing.