Applications of CRISPR-Cas System in Tumor Biology

The clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)-Cas system, which is an RNA-guided nuclease system, plays an important role in the adaptive immune response of bacteria, and it is a rapidly developing gene editing technology. It has been widely used in a variety of cells, microorganisms, plants, and animals. This technique has helped to overcome the limitations of previous gene editing methods, and it has promoted the development of synthetic biology, genetics, and proteomics. The ability of the CRISPR-Cas system to modify the genetic components of a system has led to various practical applications, such as base editing, transcription regulation, and epigenetic modification. Moreover, the CRISPR-Cas system can accelerate the development of animal tumor models, thereby promoting in vivo tumor research. In this review, first, we briefly introduce the CRISPR-Cas gene editing technology, followed by a discussion on how this technology plays a vital role in tumor modeling, researching the mechanism of cancer development, drug delivery system, therapy, and genome-wide screening for novel drug targets. Finally, we analyze the current technical problems of this system and highlight its future prospects in clinical applications. Our aim is to explore the applications of CRISPR in cancer research and treatment by discussing these research advances.