• CRISPR-Cas9 Technology: A Promising Tool for Anti-Cancer Therapy
  • Shiva Mohammadi,1,* Mahdi Barazesh,2 Leila Abkhooie,3 Soudabe Kavousipour,4
    1. Department of Medical Biotechnology, School of Medicine, Lorestan University of Medical Sciences
    2. School of Paramedical Sciences, Gerash University of Medical Sciences, Gerash, Iran
    3. Department of Medical Biotechnology, School of Medicine, Lorestan University of Medical Sciences, Khorramabad, Iran
    4. Molecular Medicine Research Center, Hormozgan Health Institute, Hormozgan University of Medical Sciences, Bandar Abbas, Iran.


  • Introduction: Cancer is one of the critical reasons of human deceases worldwide due to the high mortality rate and severe economic problems. Research has shown that the occurrence, progression, and treatment of tumors are related to gene mutation. So, CRISPR/Cas9 can be used in cancer investigation to modify the genome to survey the mechanisms of tumorigenesis and development. CRISPR/Cas9 has arisen as a dominant approach for producing changes to the genomes, which has broadly been used in numerous cell lines. Creating the cell and animal models by CRISPR/Cas9 set the base for the clinical trials that probably treated cancer.
  • Methods: This study included peer-reviewed papers from Scopus, PubMed, Web of Science, and ScienceDirect databases from 2020 to 2023.
  • Results: Recently, a CRISPR–Cas9 genome-targeting system has been developed that does not need viral vectors, allowing hasty and effective insertion of large DNA sequences at specific sites in the genomes of human T cells while preserving cell viability and function. This permits an individual or multiplexed modification of endogenous genes that replaces the endogenous T cell receptor locus with a new TCR that redirects T cells to a tumor antigen. The resulting TCR-engineered T cells precisely recognize tumor antigens and increase anti-tumor cell responses in vitro and in vivo. This study proves that non-viral genome targeting can allow quick and flexible investigational manipulation and therapeutic engineering of human immune cells. CRISPR-Cas9 can also be used to target tumors directly in vivo. Genetic mutations that switch on oncogenes stimulate carcinogenesis, and the expression of these oncogenes is specific to cancer cells. Knocking out these oncogenes via CRISPR-Cas9 is an attractive therapeutic target since it will inhibit cancer growth. Current instances comprise a lipid nanoparticle (LNP)-based delivery method to disrupt the overexpressed PLK1 (Polo Like Kinase 1) gene and a lentivirus delivery approach to target multiple cancer-specific indels.
  • Conclusion: Extensive research on CRISPR-Cas9 has allowed scientists to overcome the aggressive tumor microenvironment and produce more products for forthcoming clinical use.
  • Keywords: CRISPR-Cas9, Cancer Therapy, Immunotherapy