Gene surgery: Potential applications for human diseases

Authors

  • Ayman El-Kenawy Department of Pathology, College of Medicine, Taif University, Saudi Arabia; Department of Molecular Biology, GEBRI, University of Sadat City, P.O. Box 79, Sadat City, Egypt
  • Bachir Benarba Laboratory Research on Biological Systems and Geomatics, Faculty of Nature and Life Sciences, University of Mascara, Algeria. Tel: 213 6 59 31 92 13, E-mail: bachirsb@yahoo.fr
  • Adriana Freitas Neves Institute of Biotechnology, Molecular Biology Laboratory, Universidade Federal de Goias, Catalao, Brazil
  • Thaise Gonçalves de Araujo Laboratory of Genetics and Biotechnology, Institute of Biotechnology, Federal University of Uberlandia, Patos de Minas, MG, Brazil
  • Tan Bee Ling Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia
  • Adel Gouri Laboratory of Medical Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, University of Annaba, Algeria

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17179/excli2019-1833

Keywords:

gene surgery, CRISPR-Cas, cancer, diabetes, obesity

Abstract

Gene therapy became in last decade a new emerging therapeutic era showing promising results against different diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and neurological disorders. Recently, the genome editing technique for eukaryotic cells called CRISPR-Cas (Clustered Regulatory Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats) has enriched the field of gene surgery with enhanced applications. In the present review, we summarized the different applications of gene surgery for treating human diseases such as cancer, diabetes, nervous, and cardiovascular diseases, besides the molecular mechanisms involved in these important effects. Several studies support the important therapeutic applications of gene surgery in a large number of health disorders and diseases including β-thalassemia, cancer, immunodeficiencies, diabetes, and neurological disorders. In diabetes, gene surgery was shown to be effective in type 1 diabetes by triggering different signaling pathways. Furthermore, gene surgery, especially that using CRISPR-Cas possessed important application on diagnosis, screening and treatment of several cancers such as lung, liver, pancreatic and colorectal cancer. Nevertheless, gene surgery still presents some limitations such as the design difficulties and costs regarding ZFNs (Zinc Finger Nucleases) and TALENs (Transcription Activator-Like Effector Nucleases) use, off-target effects, low transfection efficiency, in vivo delivery-safety and ethical issues.

Author Biographies

Ayman El-Kenawy, Department of Pathology, College of Medicine, Taif University, Saudi Arabia; Department of Molecular Biology, GEBRI, University of Sadat City, P.O. Box 79, Sadat City, Egypt

Department of Pathology, College of Medicine, Taif University, Saudi Arabia

Department of Molecular Biology, GEBRI, University of Sadat City, P.O. Box 79, Sadat City, Egypt.

Adriana Freitas Neves, Institute of Biotechnology, Molecular Biology Laboratory, Universidade Federal de Goias, Catalao, Brazil

Institute of Biotechnology, Molecular Biology Laboratory, Universidade Federal de Goias, Catalao, Brazil

Thaise Gonçalves de Araujo, Laboratory of Genetics and Biotechnology, Institute of Biotechnology, Federal University of Uberlandia, Patos de Minas, MG, Brazil

Laboratory of Genetics and Biotechnology, Institute of Biotechnology, Federal University of Uberlandia, Patos de Minas, MG, Brazil.

Tan Bee Ling, Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia

Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia

Adel Gouri, Laboratory of Medical Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, University of Annaba, Algeria

Laboratory of Medical Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, University of Annaba, Algeria

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Published

2019-10-11

How to Cite

El-Kenawy, A., Benarba, B., Neves, A. F., de Araujo, T. G., Ling, T. B., & Gouri, A. (2019). Gene surgery: Potential applications for human diseases. EXCLI Journal, 18, 908–930. https://doi.org/10.17179/excli2019-1833

Issue

Vol. 18 (2019)

Section

Review articles

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