Nucleic acid-based diagnostics is a promising venue for detection of pathogens causing infectious diseases and mutations related to cancer. However, this type of diagnostics still faces certain challenges, and there is a need for more robust, simple and cost-effective methods. Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPRs), the adaptive immune systems present in the prokaryotes, has recently been developed for specific detection of nucleic acids. In this review, structural and functional differences of CRISPR-Cas proteins Cas9, Cas12 and Cas13 are outlined. Thereafter, recent reports about applications of these Cas proteins for detection of viral genomes and cancer biomarkers are discussed. Further, we highlight the challenges associated with using these technologies to replace the current diagnostic approaches and outline the points that need to be considered for designing an ideal Cas-based detection system for nucleic acids.

中文翻译：

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用于传感病毒和癌症生物标志物的 CRISPR-Cas 靶标识别


基于核酸的诊断是检测导致传染病和癌症相关突变的病原体的一个有前途的场所。然而，这种类型的诊断仍然面临一定的挑战，需要更强大、更简单和更具成本效益的方法。成簇的规则间隔短回文重复序列 （CRISPR） 是存在于原核生物中的适应性免疫系统，最近已被开发用于核酸的特异性检测。在这篇综述中，概述了 CRISPR-Cas 蛋白 Cas9 、 Cas12 和 Cas13 的结构和功能差异。此后，讨论了有关这些 Cas 蛋白在病毒基因组和癌症生物标志物检测中的应用的最新报道。此外，我们强调了使用这些技术取代当前诊断方法所面临的挑战，并概述了设计理想的基于 Cas 的核酸检测系统需要考虑的要点。