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Hereditas(Beijing) ›› 2020, Vol. 42 ›› Issue (10): 949-964.doi: 10.16288/j.yczz.20-110

• Review • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Advances in gene therapy for β-thalassemia and hemophilia based on the CRISPR/Cas9 technology

Liwen Bao1(), Yiye Zhou2, Fanyi Zeng1,2()   

  1. 1. Shanghai Key Laboratory of Embryo and Reproduction Engineering, Key Laboratory of Embryo Molecular Biology of National Health Commission, Shanghai Institute of Medical Genetics, Shanghai Children’s Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200040, China;
    2. Department of Histoembryology, Genetics & Development, Shanghai Jiao Tong University College of Basic Medical Sciences, Shanghai 200025, China;
  • Received:2020-04-21 Revised:2020-08-25 Online:2020-10-20 Published:2020-09-15
  • Contact: Zeng Fanyi E-mail:blwbaoliwen@163.com;fzeng@vip.163.com
  • Supported by:
    Supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China No(2016YFC1000503);Shanghai Key Disciplines Program No(2017ZZ02019);Key Clinical Specialty Projects in Shanghai No(shslczdzk05705)

Abstract:

Thalassemia and hemophilia are common inherited blood disorders caused by genetic abnormalities. These diseases are difficult to cure and can be inherited to the next generation, causing severe family and social burden. The emergence of gene therapy provides a new treatment for genetic diseases. However, since its first clinical trial in 1990, the development of gene therapy has not been as optimistic in the past three decades as one could hope. The development of gene-editing technology, particularly the third generation gene-editing technology CRISPR/Cas9 (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats/CRISPR-associated protein 9), has given hope in such therapeutic approach for having advantages in high editing efficiency, simple operation, and low cost. Gene editing-mediated gene therapy has thus received increasing attention from the biomedical community. It has shown promises for the treatment of inherited blood disorders, such as thalassemia and hemophilia. This paper reviews the fundamental research progress of gene therapy for β-thalassemia and hemophilia based on CRISPR/Cas9 technology in the past six years. It also summarizes the CRISPR/Cas9-based clinical trials of gene therapy. The problems and possible solutions to this technology for gene therapy are also discussed, thereby providing a reference for the research on gene therapy of inherited blood disorders based on CRISPR/Cas9 technology.

Key words: CRISPR/Cas9, gene therapy, inherited blood disorders, clinical trials