CRISPR-engineered microbiome: living therapeutics revolutionize blood cancer immunotherapy

Blood cancers such as leukemia, lymphoma, and myeloma remain refractory in many patients due to immune escape, antigen heterogeneity, and therapy‑related toxicities. To address these challenges, we review recent strategies that harness CRISPR‑engineered gut commensals as precision “living therapeutics” to modulate host immunity and directly target malignant clones. We frame this review around three principal themes: (1) mechanistic strategies whereby CRISPR-engineered commensals modulate host immunity and directly antagonize malignant clones; (2) the enabling technologies and delivery/containment platforms, CRISPR variants, phage/LNP delivery, genetic circuits and biocontainment, that make living therapeutics feasible; and (3) translational progress, outstanding technical and safety barriers, and ethical/regulatory challenges that must be addressed for clinical deployment. To illustrate these themes, we discuss three concrete therapeutic modalities: engineered microbial secretion of immunomodulators, targeted delivery of tumor-lytic payloads, and engineered production of anticancer metabolites, and how these are enabled by contemporary CRISPR and synthetic-biology toolkits. Selected preclinical models report substantial antitumor effects, often >60% tumor reduction in rodent studies, and restoration of CAR-T cell function in controlled settings; however, effect sizes vary across models, and human translation remains unproven. We also analyze key technical barriers, strain stability, biocontainment, off‑target effects, and propose solutions, including auxotrophic kill-switches and AI‑guided strain optimization. Finally, we outline future directions, from in situ phage delivery to multi‑omics–driven patient stratification. CRISPR‑microbiome editing represents a paradigm shift in hematologic oncology, offering localized, sustained therapy with reduced systemic toxicity.

• Publication year

  2025

• Venue

  npj Biofilms and Microbiomes

• Publication date

  2025-12-13

• Fields of study

  Biology, Medicine

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1038/s41522-025-00882-9PMID 41387457PMCID 12816696
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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