Gene editing monkeys: Retrospect and outlook

Weizheng Liang; Junli He; Chenyu Mao; Chengwei Yu; Qingxue Meng; Jun Xue; Xueliang Wu; Shanliang Li; Yukai Wang; Hongyang Yi

doi:10.3389/fcell.2022.913996

Gene editing monkeys: Retrospect and outlook

Front Cell Dev Biol. 2022 Sep 8:10:913996. doi: 10.3389/fcell.2022.913996. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Weizheng Liang¹, Junli He², Chenyu Mao³, Chengwei Yu⁴, Qingxue Meng¹, Jun Xue⁵, Xueliang Wu⁵, Shanliang Li⁶, Yukai Wang^{7

8

9

10}, Hongyang Yi¹¹

Affiliations

¹ Central Laboratory, The First Affiliated Hospital of Hebei North University, Zhangjiakou, China.
² Department of Pediatrics, Shenzhen University General Hospital, Shenzhen, China.
³ University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, United States.
⁴ School of Future Technology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
⁵ Department of General Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Hebei North University, Zhangjiakou, China.
⁶ Department of Pharmacology, Guangxi University of Chinese Medicine, Nanning, Guangxi, China.
⁷ State Key Laboratory of Stem Cell and Reproductive Biology, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
⁸ Institute for Stem Cell and Regeneration, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
⁹ Beijing Institute for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine, Beijing, China.
¹⁰ National Stem Cell Resource Center, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
¹¹ National Clinical Research Centre for Infectious Diseases, The Third People's Hospital of Shenzhen and The Second Affiliated Hospital of Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, China.

Abstract

Animal models play a key role in life science research, especially in the study of human disease pathogenesis and drug screening. Because of the closer proximity to humans in terms of genetic evolution, physiology, immunology, biochemistry, and pathology, nonhuman primates (NHPs) have outstanding advantages in model construction for disease mechanism study and drug development. In terms of animal model construction, gene editing technology has been widely applied to this area in recent years. This review summarizes the current progress in the establishment of NHPs using gene editing technology, which mainly focuses on rhesus and cynomolgus monkeys. In addition, we discuss the limiting factors in the applications of genetically modified NHP models as well as the possible solutions and improvements. Furthermore, we highlight the prospects and challenges of the gene-edited NHP models.

Keywords: CRISPR/Cas9; cynomolgus monkeys; gene editing; human diseases; nonhuman primates; rhesus monkeys.

Publication types

Review