EMT signaling: potential contribution of CRISPR/Cas gene editing

Reza Mohammadinejad; Alessio Biagioni; Ganesan Arunkumar; Rebecca Shapiro; Kun-Che Chang; Mohammed Sedeeq; Aftab Taiyab; Mohammad Hashemabadi; Abbas Pardakhty; Ali Mandegary; Jean-Paul Thiery; Amir Reza Aref; Iman Azimi

doi:10.1007/s00018-020-03449-3

EMT signaling: potential contribution of CRISPR/Cas gene editing

Cell Mol Life Sci. 2020 Jul;77(14):2701-2722. doi: 10.1007/s00018-020-03449-3. Epub 2020 Feb 1.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Pharmaceutics Research Center, Institute of Neuropharmacology, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran.
² Section of Experimental Pathology and Oncology, Department of Experimental and Clinical Biomedical Sciences "Mario Serio", University of Florence, Florence, Italy.
³ Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA.
⁴ Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, Canada.
⁵ Department of Ophthalmology, School of Medicine, Byers Eye Institute, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA, 94303, USA.
⁶ Division of Pharmacy, College of Health and Medicine, University of Tasmania, Hobart, TAS, Australia.
⁷ Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, L8S 4L8, Canada.
⁸ Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences, Shahid Bahonar University, Kerman, Iran.
⁹ Department of Genetics, Faculty of Biological Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran.
¹⁰ Neuroscience Research Center, Institute of Neuropharmacology, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran.
¹¹ Physiology Research Center, Institute of Neuropharmacology and Department of Toxicology & Pharmacology, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran.
¹² Guangzhou Regenerative Medicine and Health, Guangdong Laboratory, Guangzhou, China.
¹³ Department of Medical Oncology, Belfer Center for Applied Cancer Science, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, 02215, USA. Amir_aref@hms.harvard.edu.
¹⁴ Division of Pharmacy, College of Health and Medicine, University of Tasmania, Hobart, TAS, Australia. iman.azimi@utas.edu.au.

PMID: 32008085
DOI: 10.1007/s00018-020-03449-3

Abstract

Epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) is a complex plastic and reversible cellular process that has critical roles in diverse physiological and pathological phenomena. EMT is involved in embryonic development, organogenesis and tissue repair, as well as in fibrosis, cancer metastasis and drug resistance. In recent years, the ability to edit the genome using the clustered regularly interspaced palindromic repeats (CRISPR) and associated protein (Cas) system has greatly contributed to identify or validate critical genes in pathway signaling. This review delineates the complex EMT networks and discusses recent studies that have used CRISPR/Cas technology to further advance our understanding of the EMT process.

Keywords: CRISPR; Cancer; Epithelial–mesenchymal transition; Gene editing.

Publication types

Review

MeSH terms

CRISPR-Cas Systems / genetics*
Embryonic Development / genetics
Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition / genetics*
Gene Editing / methods*
Humans
Organogenesis / genetics
Signal Transduction / genetics