REVIEW article
Front. Bioeng. Biotechnol.
Sec. Nanobiotechnology
This article is part of the Research TopicThe Role of Nano-Therapeutics in Precision Cancer MedicineView all articles
Advances in Nanomaterial‐Mediated CRISPR/Cas Delivery: From Lipid Nanoparticles to Vesicle‐ Derived Systems
Provisionally accepted
- 1University of Connecticut, Storrs, United States
- 2Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China
- 3New York City Health and Hospitals Jacobi, New York, United States
- 4Boston University, Boston, United States
- 5Department of Psychological Sciences, College of Arts and Sciences, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, United States
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Gene and genome editing therapies are increasingly connected with nanomaterials, which protect and transport fragile nucleic acids and CRISPR/Cas systems through biological barriers safely and accurately. This review discusses how different nanocarriers, including lipid-based, polymeric, inorganic, and vesicle-derived systems, can improve delivery efficiency, cell targeting, endosomal escape, and intracellular movement for gene and genome editing. It summarizes findings from early clinical and preclinical studies comparing several carrier types such as ionizable lipid nanoparticles, polymeric nanoparticles, micelles, gold and silica nanostructures, and engineered extracellular vesicles. The article also explains how specific design factors, such as surface ligands, charge modification, PEGylation, and stimuli-responsive behaviors, influence biodistribution and improve on-target efficiency while lowering immune responses and off-target effects. Ethical and regulatory concerns for in vivo editing are highlighted, along with current methods used to study nano–bio interactions. Among these carriers, ionizable lipid nanoparticles show the most advanced performance for delivering nucleic acids and CRISPR systems. However, new polymer-based and exosome-inspired carriers are progressing rapidly for repeated and targeted applications. Hybrid and responsive systems may also enable better spatial and temporal control of editing. Future research should focus on stronger in vivo potency testing, improved biocompatibility evaluation, and standardized manufacturing to ensure clinical safety and reliability.
Keywords: nanocarriers, CRISPR/Cas delivery, gene editing, Lipid nanoparticles, polymeric nanoparticles, targeted delivery, Biocompatibility, in vivo gene therapy
Received: 18 Jul 2025; Accepted: 22 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Wang, Lu, Zhang, Hu and Ma. 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: Haowei Ma, mahaowei937@gmail.com
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.