CRISPRa workflow diagram with stable dCas9-VPR expression

CRISPR activation workflow with lentiviral dCas9-VPR and synthetic crRNA:tracrRNA (left side) or Lentiviral expressed sgRNA (right side).

CRISPRa plasmid co-transfection workflow

CRISPRa workflow for plasmid co-transfection of lentiviral dCas9-VPR and expressed sgRNA.

Efficient transcriptional gene activation with lentiviral sgRNA in dCas9-VPR stable cells

U2OS, HEK293T, MCF 10A and K562 stably expressing integrated CRISPRa dCas9-VPR were plated at 10,000 cells/well and transduced with CRISPRa sgRNA lentiviral particles targeting POU5F1 or TTN at a MOI of 0.3 to obtain cells with a single integrant. Cells were selected with 2 µg/mL puromycin for 4 days prior to analysis with RT-qPCR. The relative expression of each gene was calculated with the Cq method using GAPDH as the housekeeping gene and normalized to a non-targeting control.

Comparable activation is achieved with different CRISPRa guide RNA types

CRISPRa using synthetic crRNA:tracrRNA: Cells were plated at 10,000 cells/well and were transfected using DharmaFECT 4 Transfection Reagent with CRISPRa synthetic crRNA:tracrRNA (25 nM) targeting ASCL1, EGFP, POU5F1 and TTN genes. Cells were harvested 72 hours post-transfection and the relative gene expression was calculated using RT-qPCR. The relative expression of each gene was Cq method using GAPDH as the housekeeping gene and normalized to a non-targeting control.

CRISPRa with lentiviral sgRNA transduction: Cells were plated at 10,000 cells/well and were transduced with CRISPRa sgRNA lentiviral particles targeting ASCL1, EGFR, POU5F1 or TTN at a MOI of 0.3 to obtain cells with a single integrant. Cells were selected with 2 µg/mL puromycin for 4 days prior to analysis with RT-qPCR. The relative expression of each gene was calculated with the Cq method using GAPDH as the housekeeping gene and normalized to a non-targeting control.

CRISPRa with lentiviral sgRNA plasmid transfection: cells were plated at 10,000 cells/well and transfected with CRISPRa sgRNA plasmids (100 ng) targeting ASCL1, EGFR, POU5F1 or TTN using DharmaFECT kb Transfection Reagent. Cells were harvested 72 hours post-transfection (without puromycin selection) and the relative gene expression was calculated using RT-qPCR. The relative expression of each gene was Cq method using GAPDH as the housekeeping gene and normalized to a non-targeting control.