vPE: Toward a new generation of error-free prime editing
Mahnoor Jamil, Ambreen Zahra, Rizwana Maqbool, Muhammad Imran Arshad, Sultan Habibullah Khan · Molecular Therapy — Nucleic Acids · 2026
Prime editing is a precise "search and replace" genome editing tool that enables programmed genome modifications without the need for double-stranded breaks or additional repair templates. However, the retention of the unedited 5′ strand hinders the incorporation of stable edits into the genome, and the rate of indel errors is also high. Recently, Chauhan et al. reported an engineered prime editor (PE), i.e., a very precise PE (vPE), that introduces nick-relaxing mutations, which can favor stable genome edits by destabilizing the 5′ end and degrading the nicked end, thereby minimizing indel errors. This vPE holds promising potential as a transformative force in advancing human disease therapeutics and enabling innovative breakthroughs in crop improvement.