Fig. 6

Nanoparticles for CRISPR-Cas9 delivery to combat bacterial infection. CRISPR gene editors are first encapsulated into nanoparticles in three forms: Cas9/sgRNA encoding plasmids, Cas9 mRNA and sgRNA, and complexes of Cas9/sgRNA. Three different types of nanoparticles are used to deliver CRISPR-Cas9, including polymeric nanoparticles, lipid nanoparticles and gold nanoparticles. Nanoparticles can help Cas9 reduce recognition and clearance by immune cells and effectively protect it from degradation. Then, the nanoparticles enter the target bacteria, release, and assemble into complete CRISPR-Cas9 systems. Finally, CRISPR-Cas9 performs gene editing in combination with the target gene sequence on the bacterial genome or plasmid to eliminate the bacteria. (Created with BioRender.com)