CRISPR/Cas9 Applications in T Cell Modifications for Tumor Immunotherapy

Cancer is a serious global health issue that has a high fatality rate. Therefore, immunotherapy as a promising tumor therapy has long-term, specific targets, et.al, benefits. The powerful gene editing tool CRISPR/Cas9 is commonly used for tumor immunotherapy in modifying immune cells such as T cells. The T cell modification research primarily focused on antigen editing, checkpoint knockout, and cytokine regulation to enhance cell targeting and immune functions. However, current studies justified the T cell immunotherapy feasibility for treating cancer, but the underlying mechanism in CAR and TCR and T cell function regulation is still not clear. This article concentrated on analyzing the CRISPR/Cas9 applications for editing T cell mechanisms for tumor cell targeting. For example, design new CARs or TCRs for either directly or indirectly bound to the tumor cell surface to target tumor cells and activate T cells. Also, analyzed tumor escape-related immune checkpoints (ICs) and the T cell function improvement method of cytokine regulations. Furthermore, this article also summarizes the drawbacks and possible improvement methods for T cell modification in tumor immunotherapy. This article provided the basic understanding and concepts of research and development for T cell immunotherapy for tumor treatment by CRISPR/Cas9 editing. However, the underlying mechanisms and more editing target genes for T cell enhancing need to be studied and discovered in further research to achieve a complete and thorough cure for cancers.