THE PROSPECTS AND CHALLENGES OF CRISPR/CAS9 GENE EDITING IN CANCER THERAPY: A LITERATURE REVIEW

Relevance: Cancer remains one of the leading causes of death in Kazakhstan, and CRISPR/Cas9 offers possible solutions to treat it. Clustered, regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats/CRISPR-associated protein 9 (CRISPR/Cas9) is a system bacteria use to cleave foreign in-vaders. This system has been considered promising for cancer therapeutics by allowing researchers to edit cancer cell genes. The system requires more trials, so it is essential to raise awareness of this technique for stu-dents and potential investors and highlight the current challenges that could be research opportuni-ties for researchers. The study aimed to analyze and provide up-to-date information from reputable scientific journals on the current use of the CRISPR/Cas9 system in cancer therapeutics for medical students and researchers. This research paper also highlights the challenges associated with implementing CRISPR/Cas9 in clinical settings for cancer therapeutics. Methods: The scientific literature and databases (PubMed and the Nature Journal) were searched and analyzed using the CRISPR/Cas9 system in cancer therapy. Results: The results of this research indicate that scientists should focus on improving the types and structure of the Cas protein as well as the delivery methods, including the non-viral deliv-ery methods (liposome-based particles, hybrid vectors, gold nanoparticles, and extracellular vesicles) to contribute to improving the current status of cancer therapeutics. Conclusion: CRISPR/Cas9 is an important technique that is still fraught with challenges and should be turned into research opportunities. The current challenges include the form and structure of the Cas nuclease, the types of engineering (in vivo vs. ex vivo), and the varieties of delivery methods. Each delivery method type has pros and cons and requires further research. In particular, future studies should focus on non-viral vectors, such as liposome-based particles, extracellular vesi-cles, hybrid vesicles, and gold nanoparticles.