CRISPR/Cas based genome editing for liver diseases: Promise and challenge

Liver disorders pose a severe threat to public health and impose a substantial burden on global healthcare systems. In recent years, the Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats/CRISPR-associated proteins (CRISPR/Cas) based genome editing technology has emerged as a promising approach for managing various liver pathologies. This review systematically summarizes the applications of these technologies in the treatment of liver diseases. We analyze the current development status of CRISPR/Cas based gene-editing tools and the available delivery systems, further summarize the latest research advances in the management of hereditary liver diseases, infectious liver diseases, and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), and finally discuss the challenges of CRISPR/Cas based editing for liver diseases management as well as the outlook derived from the above analysis. By integrating insights into both opportunities and obstacles, this review aims to provide a comprehensive framework to guide future research, subsequent clinical translation, and the rational application of CRISPR genome editing in liver disease management.