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REVIEW article
Front. Genome Ed.
Sec. Genome Editing Tools and Mechanisms
Volume 6 - 2024 |
doi: 10.3389/fgeed.2024.1464531
Making gene editing accessible in resource limited environments: recommendations to guide a first-time user
Provisionally accepted- 1 Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Pretoria, South Africa
- 2 Department of Human Biology, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa
- 3 Division of Human Genetics, School of Pathology, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
The designer nuclease, CRISPR-Cas9 system has advanced the field of genome engineering owing to its programmability and ease of use. The application of these molecular scissors for genome engineering earned the developing researchers the Nobel prize in Chemistry in the year 2020. At present, the potential of this technology to improve global challenges continues to grow exponentially. CRISPR-Cas9 shows promise in the recent advances made in the Global North such as the FDA approved gene therapy for the treatment of sickle cell anaemia and β-thalassemia and the gene editing of porcine kidney for xenotransplantation into humans affected by end-stage kidney failure. Limited resources, low government investment with an allocation of 1% of gross domestic production to research and development including a shortage of skilled professionals and lack of knowledge may preclude the use of this revolutionary technology in the Global South where the countries involved have reduced science and technology budgets. Focusing on the practical application of genome engineering, successful genetic manipulation is not easily accomplishable and is influenced by the chromatin landscape of the target locus, guide RNA selection, the experimental design including the profiling of the gene edited cells, which impacts the overall outcome achieved. Our assessment primarily delves into economical approaches of performing efficient genome engineering to support the first-time user restricted by limited resources with the aim of democratizing the use of the technology across low-and middle-income countries. Here we provide a comprehensive overview on existing experimental techniques, the significance for target locus analysis and current pitfalls such as the underrepresentation of global genetic diversity. Several perspectives of genome engineering approaches are outlined, which can be adopted in a resource limited setting to enable a higher success rate of genome editing-based innovations in low-and middle-income countries.
Keywords: CRISPR-Cas9, LMIC (low- and middle-income countries), cost-effective, Beginner, genome engineering, genetic diversity, Africa, Chromatin landscape
Received: 14 Jul 2024; Accepted: 05 Sep 2024.
Copyright: © 2024 Goolab and Scholefield. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Shivani Goolab, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Pretoria, South Africa
Janine Scholefield, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Pretoria, South Africa
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