Tumors remain a health concern worldwide, and gene therapy is a useful approach for treating tumors. The Clustered regulatory interspaced short palindromic repeat (CRISPR) system, an efficient and robust gene-editing system originating from bacteria, serves as an important tool in gene therapy. In this review, we briefly summarize the usage of CRISPR (including in gene knockout and gene knock-in applications) and the CRISPRa system in tumor therapy, including its delivery approaches and the general fields in which it has been applied. We summarize the application of the CRISPR system in tumor therapy in two aspects: its application in tumor cell modification and its application in drug engineering. This review also summarizes the advantages and challenges of using the CRISPR system in tumor therapy.
Keywords: CRISPR; gene therapy; tumor.
© 2020 International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Inc.