CRISPR/Cas9 Editing to Facilitate and Expand Drug Discovery

Francis Robert; Sidong Huang; Jerry Pelletier

doi:10.2174/1566523217666171121164615

CRISPR/Cas9 Editing to Facilitate and Expand Drug Discovery

Curr Gene Ther. 2017;17(4):275-285. doi: 10.2174/1566523217666171121164615.

Authors

Francis Robert¹, Sidong Huang^{1

2}, Jerry Pelletier^{1

3

2}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Biochemistry, McGill University, Montreal, QC, H3G 1Y6, Canada.
² Rosalind and Morris Goodman Cancer Research Center, McGill University, Montreal, QC, H3G 1Y6, Canada.
³ Department of Oncology, McGill University, Montreal, QC, H3G 1Y6, Canada.

PMID: 29173168
DOI: 10.2174/1566523217666171121164615

Abstract

Introduction: The ability of most laboratories to easily access CRISPR/Cas9 engineering tools has caused a revolution in biology. One of the areas that will continue to be impacted by genome editing is the drug discovery process.

Objective: CRISPR/Cas9 will not only serve to accelerate the drug discovery pipeline, but also streamline line it by identifying high-value targets, facilitating the validation of drug: target interactions and mechanisms of action, and stimulating the development of phenotype-based high throughput screens as alternatives to target-based assays.

Conclusion: We review the literature and hurdles that have been overcome to develop the current generation of tools being used to enrich the drug discovery paradigm.

Keywords: Base editing; CRISPR/Cas9; Drug discovery; Druggable genome; RNA; Target: drug interaction validation.

Publication types

Review

MeSH terms

Animals
CRISPR-Cas Systems*
Drug Discovery / methods*
Drug Evaluation, Preclinical / methods
Drug Resistance / genetics
Gene Editing / methods*
Humans
Molecular Targeted Therapy / methods