New Developments in CRISPR Technology: Improvements in Specificity and Efficiency

Title:New Developments in CRISPR Technology: Improvements in Specificity and Efficiency

Volume: 18 Issue: 13

Author(s): Fatemeh Safari, Safar Farajnia*, Younes Ghasemi and Nosratollah Zarghami

Affiliation:

• Biotechnology Research Center, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz,Iran

Keywords: CRISPR-Cas systems, guide RNA (gRNA), gene editing, mutation, off-target effect, single-strand specific DNA and RNA endonucleases.

Abstract: Background: RNA-guided endonuclease as a versatile genome editing technology opened new windows in various fields of biology. The simplicity of this revolutionary technique provides a promising future for its application in a broad range of approaches from functional annotation of genes to diseases, to genetic manipulation and gene therapy. Besides the site-specific activity of Cas9 endonuclease, the unintended cleavage known as off-target effect is still a major challenge for this genome editing technique.

Methods: Various strategies have been developed to resolve this bottleneck including development of new softwares for designing optimized guide RNA (gRNA), engineering Cas9 enzyme, improvement in off-target detection assays, etc.

Results: This review dedicated to discuss on methods that have been used for optimizing Cas9, specificity with the aim of improving this technology for therapeutic applications.

Conclusion: In addition, the applications and novel breakthroughs in the field of CRISPR technology will be described.

Cite this article as:

Safari Fatemeh , Farajnia Safar*, Ghasemi Younes and Zarghami Nosratollah, New Developments in CRISPR Technology: Improvements in Specificity and Efficiency, Current Pharmaceutical Biotechnology 2017; 18 (13) . https://dx.doi.org/10.2174/1389201019666180209120533