Application of Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeat—Cas12a System in Cancer Research and its Structural Basis

The clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat-Cas12a (CRISPR-Cas12a) system is a new type of CRISPR-Cas system. As a unitary effector protein in this system, Cas12a recognizes 5’-TTTN-3’ protospacer-adjacent motif and exhibits cleavage activity of double-stranded deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and ribonucleic acid (RNA), supplementing the toolbox of CRISPR system. Compared to CRISPR-Cas9 system, CRISPR-Cas12a system has the advantage of high specificity, which is a promising tool for genetic manipulation in the basic cancer research and clinical cancer therapy. To date, three Cas12a proteins including Acidaminococcus sp. Cas12a (AsCas12a), Francisella novicida Cas12a (FnCas12a), and Lachnospiraceae bacterium Cas12a (LpCas12a) have been applied in transcriptional regulation or genome editing through CRISPR RNAs complementary to target DNA or RNA in cancer cells or immune cells. This review summarizes the latest applications of CRISPR-Cas12a system in cancer research and its structural basis.