CRISPR/Cas9 for cancer research and therapy

Abstract

CRISPR/Cas9 has become a powerful method for making changes to the genome of many organisms. First discovered in bacteria as part of an adaptive immune system, CRISPR/Cas9 and modified versions have found a widespread use to engineer genomes and to activate or to repress the expression of genes. As such, CRISPR/Cas9 promises to accelerate cancer research by providing an efficient technology to dissect mechanisms of tumorigenesis, identify targets for drug development, and possibly arm cells for cell-based therapies. Here, we review current applications of the CRISPR/Cas9 technology for cancer research and therapy. We describe novel Cas9 variants and how they are used in functional genomics to discover novel cancer-specific vulnerabilities. Furthermore, we highlight the impact of CRISPR/Cas9 in generating organoid and mouse models of cancer. Finally, we provide an overview of the first clinical trials that apply CRISPR/Cas9 as a therapeutic approach against cancer.

NCAPG Is a Promising Therapeutic Target Across Different Tumor Types

“…Although many molecularly targeted agents that attenuate specific oncogenic driver pathways have been developed to facilitate tumor treatment, not all patients can benefit because targeting driver pathways is not applicable for all tumor types. However, the CRISPR/Cas9 is a promising tool for molecular targeted gene therapy, which can activate or repress the expression of genes linked to multiple types of cancer (Sachdeva et al, 2015;Zhan et al, 2018). Therefore, the identification of aberrant gene expression across tumors is of great significance.…”

Crosstalk of lncRNA and Cellular Metabolism and Their Regulatory Mechanism in Cancer

“…Recently, CRISPR/Cas9 has also received extensive attention in the treatment of cancer [92]. One of the limitations for knockout lncRNAs by CRISPR/Cas9 system is that nucleotide insertions/deletions mutation may not lead to a functional loss of lncRNAs, which lack an open reading frame.…”

One cell, one drop, one click: hybrid microfluidic mammalian single-cell isolation

“…Currently, using Cas9 for gene-editing shows widespread benefits for generating new cellular therapies [4,5] and creating new genetic models for cancer [6,7] . To create new edited cell lines, evaluating the properties of single clones (i.e.…”