Research and clinical translation progress of SARS-CoV-2 detection approaches based on CRISPR technology

ABSTRACT

Since the Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by the infection of SARS-CoV-2 was first reported in 2019, COVID-19 has spread rapidly around the world, causing serious negative impacts on the daily life and work of people around the world. Recently, several studies on SARS-CoV-2 detection approaches based on Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR) technology have been reported, showing that CRISPR technology can be used to detect SARS-CoV-2 rapidly, sensitively, specifically, visually and on-site. There are already detection kits based on CRISPR technology in clinical application at home and abroad, and good clinical feedback has been obtained. Therefore, the SARS-CoV-2 detection method based on CRISPR technology is expected to overcome the shortcomings of the existing RT-PCR approach in clinical practice, and replace RT-PCR as the gold standard for the next generation of SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acid detection. In this article, the research and progress of SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acid detection methods based on CRISPR technology are introduced, the principle and clinical application of CRISPR technology are reviewed, and the future development of the technology is prospected in order to promote its clinical transformation speed.