CRISPR-Cas9 System: A Revolutionary Tool in the Fight Against Antimicrobial Resistance: Retracted

Abstract The rapidly evolving world of antimicrobial resistance has not only made it difficult to combat infectious diseases, but during the last decades also brought the discovery of novel antimicrobials to a standstill. In recent years, researchers discovered the potential of the clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)-associated (CRISPR-Cas) system as an alternative therapeutic. Since the unearthing of CRISPR-Cas9 as an “adaptive immune system” of bacteria, the CRISPR-Cas9 system has been improved into a state-of-the-art genetic engineering tool, with an impressive ability to cause specific gene insertions and/or gene deletions, in almost all microorganisms. The emerging picture suggests that the CRISPR-Cas9 system can be exploited in a sequence-specific manner to selectively eliminate individual bacterial strains in a mixed microbial population, and/or re-sensitize bacteria to antibiotics. These findings have not only revolutionized biomedical research, but might also prove to be pivotal in creating novel alternative treatments for multidrug-resistant infections. Here, we discussed the up-to-date findings reported in this area, as well as the approaches involved in the utilization of CRISPR-Cas9 as a novel technology in the fight against antimicrobial resistance. We also highlighted recent studies that have exploited the CRISPR-Cas9 system in the context of targeting pathogenic and drug-resistant bacteria.