Molecular and therapeutic effect of CRISPR in treating cancer

Abstract

Cancer has become one of the common causes of mortality around the globe due to mutations in the genome which allows rapid growth of cells uncontrollably without repairing DNA errors. Cancers could arise due alterations in DNA repair mechanisms (errors in mismatch repair genes), activation of oncogenes and inactivation of tumor suppressor genes. Each cancer type is different and each individual has a unique genetic change which leads them to cancer. Studying genetic and epigenetic alterations in the genome leads to understanding the underlying features. CAR T therapy over other immunotherapies such as monoclonal antibodies, immune checkpoint inhibitors, cancer vaccines and adoptive cell therapies has been widely used to treat cancer in recent days and gene editing has now become one of the promising treatments for many genetic diseases. This tool allows scientists to change the genome by adding, removing or altering genetic material of an organism. Due to advance in genetics and novel molecular techniques such as CRISPR, TALEN these genes can be edited in such a way that their original function could be replaced which in turn improved the treatment possibilities and can be used against malignancies and even cure cancer in future along with CAR T cell therapy due to the specific recognition and attacking of tumor.

Keywords: Cancer; Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T cell therapy; Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR); Gene editing; Gene therapy; Immunotherapy.

Fig. 1

CAR-T cell therapy. T cells that were taken from people and edit in such a way that they could bind specifically with cancer cells. Blood taken via an apheresis machine in which only white blood cells will be taken and rest will be send back. T cells in these white bloods cells were inserted with a chimeric antigen receptor, and grown into millions of cells [17]

Fig. 2

CRISPR gene editing mechanism. To boost the function of CAR-T cells, CRISPR can be used as a gene editing tool, via knocking out inhibitory molecules in T cells [13]