Yang Shijie, Wei Yiming, Quansah Elvis, Zhang Ziyu, Da Weiran, Wang Bingjie, Wang Kaige, Sun Danhong, Tao Zhiyong, Zhang Chao
The Second Clinical Medical College, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, 230032, People's Republic of China.
Department of Microbiology and Parasitology, Anhui Key Laboratory of Zoonoses, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, 230032, People's Republic of China.
Microb Pathog. 2025 Mar;200:107340. doi: 10.1016/j.micpath.2025.107340. Epub 2025 Jan 27.
Malaria, caused by the Plasmodium parasites, has always been one of the worst infectious diseases that threaten human health, making it necessary for us to study the genetic function and physiological mechanisms of Plasmodium parasites from the molecular level to find more effective ways of addressing the increasingly pressing threat. The CRISPR (Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats)-Cas (CRISPR-associated protein) is an RNA-guided adaptive immune system, which has been extensively developed and used as a genome editing tool in many organisms, including Plasmodium parasites. However, due to the physiological characteristics and special genomic characteristics of Plasmodium parasites, most of the tools currently used for genome editing of Plasmodium parasites have not met expectations. CRISPR-Cas12a (also known as Cpf1), one of the CRISPR-Cas systems, has attracted considerable attention because of its characteristics of being used for biological diagnosis and multiple genome editing. Recent studies have shown that its unique properties fit the genetic makeup of Plasmodium parasites making it a promising tool for gene editing in these parasites. In this review, we have summarized the relevant content of the Cas12 family, especially the frequently used Cas12a, its advantages for gene editing, and the application prospects in Plasmodium parasites.
疟疾由疟原虫寄生引起，一直是威胁人类健康的最严重传染病之一，这使得我们有必要从分子层面研究疟原虫的基因功能和生理机制，以找到应对日益紧迫威胁的更有效方法。CRISPR（成簇规律间隔短回文重复序列）-Cas（CRISPR相关蛋白）是一种RNA引导的适应性免疫系统，已在包括疟原虫在内的许多生物体中广泛开发并用作基因组编辑工具。然而，由于疟原虫的生理特性和特殊的基因组特征，目前用于疟原虫基因组编辑的大多数工具都未达到预期。CRISPR-Cas12a（也称为Cpf1）是CRISPR-Cas系统之一，因其用于生物诊断和多重基因组编辑的特性而备受关注。最近的研究表明，其独特性质适合疟原虫的基因组成，使其成为这些寄生虫基因编辑的有前途工具。在本综述中，我们总结了Cas12家族的相关内容，特别是常用的Cas12a、其基因编辑优势以及在疟原虫中的应用前景。
