There have been a lot of papers on effective gene silencing using CRISPR/Cas9 in stem cells and cancel cell lines. However does anyone know if the CRISPR/Cas 9 system would be equally effective in silencing gene expression in a heterogeneous cancer stem cell/tumor initiating cell population?
In my opinion, a factor possibly influencing the efficacy of gene KO by CRISPR technique is the physical accessibility of target locus. Since different cell types could have a specific genomic architecture (thus a typical epigenetic context, a specific gene expression profile, a certain cellulare phenotype, excetera...), I think that CRISPR system could really have a variable efficacy depending on the target cell type. Consideting the target cells as a bulk population, I think you could have very variable outcomes.
You are right, the correct definition should be gene editing (that can result in a complete gene inactivation or not, depending on the type of Cas9 nuclease used to produce DNA break).
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