Application of CRISPR/Cas9 technology in tumor targeted therapy

Abstract

Cancer has always been one of the major diseases affecting human health, which is characterized by genomic instability, high individual heterogeneity and inhibitory tumor microenvironment. Epidemiological studies have found that the standardized rates of various new malignant tumors have increased significantly in recent years, while the traditional therapeutic methods are easy to cause serious tissue damages, high recurrence rate and other postoperative complications. CRISPR/Cas9 system is a defense mechanism of archaea. It can recognize and integrate invasive DNA into its own genome through three steps: acquisition, expression and interference. When invaded by the same antigen, it can quickly recognize foreign DNA and specifically cut it, thus playing an immune defense role. This biological mechanism was originally mainly used for gene function identification. With the rapid development and interdisciplinary integration of immunology, genomics and clinical medicine, more and more studies have found that CRISPR/Cas9 system combined with targeted therapy can assist immunotherapy, gene therapy and target screening at the genetic and molecular levels, and has high editing efficiency, which has great prospects in the field of tumor treatment. Therefore, the objective of this review is to explore the application of CRISPR/Cas9 technology in adoptive immune cell therapy, tumor gene therapy and targeted gene screening, so as to provide reference for its efficient application in tumor targeted therapy.