In vivo CRISPR editing for cancer immunotherapy

Abstract

Cancer immunotherapy has shown significant promise in certain patient populations, but further advancements are needed to extend its benefits to a wider range of patients. Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)-based editing has rapidly evolved in recent years, enabling its transition into direct therapeutic applications. This review summarizes recent progress in applying CRISPR systems in vivo for cancer immunotherapy, focusing on approaches that target cancer cells and the tumor microenvironment, as well as those that directly engineer immune cell populations themselves. Novel CRISPR editing platforms and strategies enabling multiplexed editing have also recently demonstrated promising impacts on driving antitumor immunity, however, the platforms investigated are still in the early stages and further investigation will be needed to robustly assess the potential for clinical translation. Future work can expand the array of therapeutic targets by incorporating data from functional genomics and must also carefully evaluate both editing modalities and delivery systems to optimize efficacy, safety, and scalability.