Conclusion
There are challenges associated with CAR-T cell therapy that can be
addressed by genome editing technology. CRISPR/Cas9 has been a helpful
tool for the success of CAR-T cell therapy against different tumor
cells. This novel genome-editing technology addressed the problem lies
in the clinical use of allogeneic donor T cells, which led to GVHD in
the recipient. CRISPR/Cas9 can reduce the potential GVHD caused by
allogeneic CAR-T cells through eliminating TRAC and HLA loci. This
approach would draw the concept of the development of off-the-shelf
CAR-T cells, which could be applied in different individuals regardless
of HLA matches between donor and recipient. CAR-T cell performance has
been improved by disrupting inhibitory molecules, such as PD-1 and TGF-
β. Given the early positive outcome of the CRISPR/Cas9 edited CAR-T
cells, there appear to be numerous opportunities for new cancer therapy.
The annual market value for successful cancer therapy exceed billions of
US dollars, and this encourages academic as well as the pharmaceutical
industry further research into this technology for the treatment of
unmet clinical need in many diseases.