Kayesh MEH, Hashem MA, Kohara M, Tsukiyama-Kohara K. In vivo Delivery Tools for Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeat/Associated Protein 9-Mediated Inhibition of Hepatitis B Virus Infection: An Update.
Front Microbiol 2022;
13:953218. [PMID:
35847068 PMCID:
PMC9284033 DOI:
10.3389/fmicb.2022.953218]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/25/2022] [Accepted: 06/15/2022] [Indexed: 12/05/2022] Open
Abstract
Chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection remains a major global health problem despite the availability of an effective prophylactic HBV vaccine. Current antiviral therapies are unable to fully cure chronic hepatitis B (CHB) because of the persistent nature of covalently closed circular DNA (cccDNA), a replicative template for HBV, which necessitates the development of alternative therapeutic approaches. The CRISPR/Cas system, a newly emerging genome editing tool, holds great promise for genome editing and gene therapy. Several in vitro and/or in vivo studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of HBV-specific clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat (CRISPR)/associated protein 9 (CRISPR/Cas9) systems in cleaving HBV DNA and cccDNA. Although recent advances in CRISPR/Cas technology enhance its prospects for clinical application against HBV infection, in vivo delivery of the CRISPR/Cas9 system at targets sites remains a major challenge that needs to be resolved before its clinical application in gene therapy for CHB. In the present review, we discuss CRISPR/Cas9 delivery tools for targeting HBV infection, with a focus on the development of adeno-associated virus vectors and lipid nanoparticle (LNP)-based CRISPR/Cas ribonucleoprotein (RNP) delivery to treat CHB. In addition, we discuss the importance of delivery tools in the enhancement of the antiviral efficacy of CRISPR/Cas9 against HBV infection.
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