Haiying Jin

Introduction Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a chronic inflammatory airway disorder and one of the most prevalent respiratory conditions, currently recognized as the third leading cause of death worldwide.1,2 The key pathological hallmark of COPD is persistent airflow limitation, which progressively impairs lung function and leads to irreversible airway damage.

Introduction Schizophrenia is a chronic disease with a prolonged course, and antipsychotics are the primary choice for its treatment.1 However, there is significant heterogeneity in the efficacy of antipsychotic medication. The same drug at the same dosage can have different therapeutic effects and adverse reactions on different schizophrenic patients, which poses significant challenges when selecting medications and avoiding adverse reactions in clinical treatment.

The scheme of the CA-NHEJ strategy for one-step gene(s) inactivation is presented in Fig. 1. First, Cas9 from Streptococcus pyogenes SF370 and the conserved prokaryotic NHEJ proteins from Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Rv were heterologously expressed in E. coli. The sgRNA expression plasmid, containing the information for Cas9 targeting via Watson–Crick base pairing, was then electrotransformed into the host, resulting in the site-specific generation of DSBs and deletion mutations.