Detection of CRISPR-Cas9-Mediated Mutations Using a Carbon Nanotube-Modified Electrochemical Genosensor

CRISPR-based electrochemical biosensors: an alternative for point-of-care diagnostics?

The combination of CRISPR technology and electrochemical sensors has sparked a paradigm shift in the landscape of point-of-care (POC) diagnostics. This review explores the dynamic convergence between CRISPR and electrochemical sensing, elucidating their roles in rapid and precise biosensing platforms. CRISPR, renowned for its remarkable precision in genome editing and programmability capability, has found a novel application in conjunction with electrochemical sensors, promising highly sensitive and specific detection of nucleic acids and biomarkers associated with diverse diseases. This article navigates through fundamental principles, research developments, and applications of CRISPR-based electrochemical sensors, highlighting their potential to revolutionize healthcare accessibility and patient outcomes. In addition, some key points and challenges regarding applying CRISPR-powered electrochemical sensors in real POC settings are presented. By discussing recent advancements and challenges in this interdisciplinary field, this review evaluates the potential of these innovative sensors as an alternative for decentralized, rapid, and accurate POC testing, offering some insights into their applications across clinical scenarios and their impact on the future of diagnostics.

Sensitive and Portable Signal Readout Strategies Boost Point-of-Care CRISPR/Cas12a Biosensors

Point-of-care (POC) detection is getting more and more attention in many fields due to its accuracy and on-site test property. The CRISPR/Cas12a system is endowed with excellent sensitivity, target identification specificity, and signal amplification ability in biosensing because of its unique trans-cleavage ability. As a result, a lot of research has been made to develop CRISPR/Cas12a-based biosensors. In this review, we focused on signal readout strategies and summarized recent sensitivity-improving strategies in fluorescence, colorimetric, and electrochemical signaling. Then we introduced novel portability-improving strategies based on lateral flow assays (LFAs), microfluidic chips, simplified instruments, and one-pot design. In the end, we also provide our outlook for the future development of CRISPR/Cas12a biosensors.

Application of CRISPR Cas Systems for Biosensing

The essential properties of a biosensor are its sensitivity and selectivity to detect, monitor and quantify the biomarker(s) for the interests of medicine [...].

CRISPR-Cas12a-Empowered Electrochemical Biosensor for Rapid and Ultrasensitive Detection of SARS-CoV-2 Delta Variant

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a highly contagious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The gold standard method for the diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 depends on quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction till now, which is time-consuming and requires expensive instrumentation, and the confirmation of variants relies on further sequencing techniques. Herein, we first proposed a robust technique-methodology of electrochemical CRISPR sensing with the advantages of rapid, highly sensitivity and specificity for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 variant. To enhance the sensing capability, gold electrodes are uniformly decorated with electro-deposited gold nanoparticles. Using DNA template identical to SARS-CoV-2 Delta spike gene sequence as model, our biosensor exhibits excellent analytical detection limit (50 fM) and high linearity (R² = 0.987) over six orders of magnitude dynamic range from 100 fM to 10 nM without any nucleic-acid-amplification assays. The detection can be completed within 1 h with high stability and specificity which benefits from the CRISPR-Cas system. Furthermore, based on the wireless micro-electrochemical platform, the proposed biosensor reveals promising application ability in point-of-care testing.

Synthesis and characterization of single-walled carbon nanotube: Cyto-genotoxicity in Allium cepa root tips and molecular docking studies

Herein, single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) were synthesized by the thermal chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method, and characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Raman spectroscopy, dynamic light scattering (DLS), and thermo-gravimetric analysis (TGA). The results indicated that obtained nanotubes were SWCNTs with high crystallinity and their average diameter was 10.15 ± 3 nm. Allium cepa ana-telophase and comet assays on the root meristem were employed to evaluate the cytotoxic and genotoxic effects of SWCNTs by examining mitotic phases, mitotic index (MI), chromosomal aberrations (CAs), and DNA damage. A. cepa root tip cells were exposed to SWCNTs at concentrations of 12.5, 25, 50, and 100 μg/ml for 4 h. Distilled water and methyl methanesulfonate (MMS, 10 μg/ml) were used as the negative and positive control groups, respectively. It was observed that MIs decreased statistically significantly for all applied doses. Besides, CAs such as chromosome laggards, disturbed anaphase-telophase, stickiness and bridges and also DNA damage increased in the presence of SWCNTs in a concentration-dependent manner. In the molecular docking study, the SWCNT were found to be a strong DNA major groove binder showing an energetically very favorable binding free energy of -21.27 kcal/mol. Furthermore, the SWCNT interacted effectively with the nucleotides on both strands of DNA primarily via hydrophobic π and electrostatic interactions. As a result, cytotoxic and genotoxic effects of SWCNTs in A. cepa root meristematic cells which is a reliable system for assessment of nanoparticle toxicology were demonstrated in this study.

Rational Programming of Cas12a for Early-Stage Detection of COVID-19 by Lateral Flow Assay and Portable Real-Time Fluorescence Readout Facilities

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus has led to a global pandemic with a high spread rate and pathogenicity. Thus, with limited testing solutions, it is imperative to develop early-stage diagnostics for rapid and accurate detection of SARS-CoV-2 to contain the rapid transmission of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. In this regard, there remains little knowledge about the integration of the CRISPR collateral cleavage mechanism in the lateral flow assay and fluorophotometer. In the current study, we demonstrate a CRISPR/Cas12a-based collateral cleavage method for COVID-19 diagnosis using the Cas12a/crRNA complex for target recognition, reverse transcription loop-mediated isothermal amplification (RT-LAMP) for sensitivity enhancement, and a novel DNA capture probe-based lateral flow strip (LFS) or real-time fluorescence detector as the parallel system readout facility, termed CRICOLAP. Our novel approach uses a customized reporter that hybridizes an optimized complementary capture probe fixed at the test line for naked-eye result readout. The CRICOLAP system achieved ultra-sensitivity of 1 copy/µL in ~32 min by portable real-time fluorescence detection and ~60 min by LFS. Furthermore, CRICOLAP validation using 60 clinical nasopharyngeal samples previously verified with a commercial RT-PCR kit showed 97.5% and 100% sensitivity for S and N genes, respectively, and 100% specificity for both genes of SARS-CoV-2. CRICOLAP advances the CRISPR/Cas12a collateral cleavage result readout in the lateral flow assay and fluorophotometer, and it can be an alternative method for the decentralized field-deployable diagnosis of COVID-19 in remote and limited-resource locations.