CRISPR-Based COVID-19 Testing: Toward Next-Generation Point-of-Care Diagnostics

Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology

Changchun Liu¹  Uyanga Ganbaatar² 

[1] Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Connecticut Health Center, Farmington, CT, United States;Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Connecticut Health Center, Farmington, CT, United States;Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, United States;

关键词: COVID-19;    coronavirus;    SARS-CoV-2;    CRISPR-based nucleic acid detection;    point-of-care testing;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fcimb.2021.663949

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, people are becoming infected at an alarming rate, individuals are unknowingly spreading disease, and more lives are lost every day. There is an immediate need for a simple, rapid, early and sensitive point-of-care testing for COVID-19 disease. However, current testing approaches do not meet such need. Recently, clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)-based detection methods have received substantial attention for nucleic acid-based molecular testing due to their simplicity, high sensitivity and specificity. This review explores the various CRISPR-based COVID-19 detection methods and related diagnostic devices. As with any emerging technology, CRISPR/Cas-based nucleic acid testing methods have several challenges that must be overcome for practical applications in clinics and hospitals. More importantly, these detection methods are not limited to COVID-19 but can be applied to detect any type of pathogen, virus, and fungi that may threaten humans, agriculture, and food industries in resource-limited settings. CRISPR/Cas-based detection methods have the potential to become simpler, more reliable, more affordable, and faster in the near future, which is highly important for achieving point-of-care diagnostics.

【 授权许可】

CC BY