CRISPR/Cas9 system: A promising technology for the treatment of inherited and neoplastic hematological diseases

The ongoing advent of genome editing with programmable nucleases, including zinc-finger nuclease (ZFN), TAL effector nuclease (TALEN), and Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR)-associated RNA-guided endonuclease Cas9 (CRISPR/Cas9), have spurred the hematopoietic stem cell gene therapy (HSC-GT). In particular, CRISPR/Cas9-mediated gene editing revealed promising outcomes in several preclinical disease models including inherited and neoplastic hematological diseases. In this review, we focused on the utilization of the CRISPR/Cas9 system as a possible treatment option for hemoglobinopathies and hematological tumors. We summarize the recent advances with CRISPR/Cas9 and its therapeutic potential for genome editing in cells from hematopoietic origin. We also critically discussed the limitations inherent to the CRISPR/Cas9 and possible alternatives for the improvement of genome editing.