The current advances of CRISPR/Cas-based systems for the detection of COVID-19

Abstract

The novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) still poses a serious threat to every human on the planet nearly 1.5 years after its beginning. Unfortunately, the current diagnostic methods, although highly sensitive and specific, still suffer from many shortcomings. Faster and easy-to-operate diagnostic systems are undoubtedly sorely needed. The CRISPR/Cas platform has gained much attention in recent years in a wide range of biomedical sciences. Besides its treatment potential and drug and vaccine development, it can be used for disease diagnosis. Thus, the CRISPR/Cas-based system holds great promise for providing a rapid and easily deployable COVID-19 detection and is on par with the conventional diagnostic approaches in terms of sensitivity and specificity. In this review article, we discuss the latest advances of CRISPR/Cas technology as a fast and reliable severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) detection method.