CRISPR-Cas9 as a Potential Cancer Therapy Agent: An Update

Abstract

Cancer is the second leading cause of death globally and remains a major economic and social burden. Although our understanding of cancer at the molecular level continues to improve, more effort is needed to develop new therapeutic tools and approaches exploiting these advances. Due to its high efficiency and accuracy, the CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing technique has recently emerged as a cancer treatment strategy. Among its many applications, CRISPR-Cas9 has shown an unprecedented clinical potential to discover novel targets for cancer therapy and to dissect chemical-genetic interactions, providing insight into how tumors respond to drug treatment. Moreover, CRISPR-Cas9 can be employed to rapidly engineer immune cells and oncolytic viruses for cancer immunotherapeutic applications. More importantly, the ability of CRISPR-Cas9 to accurately edit genes, not only in cell culture models and model organisms but also in humans, allows its use in therapeutic explorations this review, important considerations for the use of CRISPR/Cas9 in therapeutic properties are discussed, along with major challenges that will need to be addressed before clinical examinations for a complex and polygenic disease such as cancer. This review aimed to explore the potential of the CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing technique as a cancer treatment strategy. Specifically, we will discuss how CRISPR-Cas9 can be used to discover novel targets for cancer therapy and to dissect chemical-genetic interactions.