TY - JOUR AU - Khan, Ashraf Ullah AU - Ullah, Zabi PY - 2021/02/25 Y2 - 2024/03/29 TI - Using CRISPR-Cas9 for Therapeutic Protein Production (Review Article) JF - Asian Journal of Pharmacy, Nursing and Medical Sciences JA - AJPNMS VL - 9 IS - 1 SE - Articles DO - 10.24203/ajpnms.v9i1.6115 UR - https://ajouronline.com/index.php/AJPNMS/article/view/6115 SP - AB - <p>Existence of CRISPR/Cas9 systems in bacteria and archaea has been noted to be the reason for these organisms’ ability to disarm invading nucleic acids. Such immunity is noted to arise from the targeting of the invading nucleic acids by guiding RNAs (sgRNAs), their cleavage by Cas9 (an endonuclease), and their subsequent integration into CRISPR locus. Recent studies have shown that the CRISPR/Cas9 tool can be adopted for gene editing in eukaryotic cells and thus offering potential for its use to treat genetic conditions. In this review, CRISPR/Cas9 has been shown to be an effective genome-editing tool with studies showing efficacy in zygote editing, in-vivo editing of somatic cells and ex-vivo editing of somatic cells. Occurrence of off-target effects however make zygote editing in human cells ethically questionable due to possibility of introducing unwanted mutations that may be passed on to the progeny. Nevertheless, observations that such off-target effects arise mainly from the promiscuity of sgRNAs rather that errors in CRISPR/Cas9 system show promise for increased specificity by developing better sgRNAs.  Such increased specificity will facilitate the adoption of CRISPR/Cas9 for clinical use in treatment of conditions such as β-thalassemia, cystic fibrosis, Duchenne muscular dystrophy and HIV.</p> ER -