Appraisal of CRISPR Technology as an Innovative Screening to Therapeutic Toolkit for Genetic Disorders.

Abstract

The high frequency of genetic diseases compels the development of refined diagnostic and therapeutic systems. CRISPR is a precise genome editing tool that offers detection of genetic mutation with high sensitivity, specificity and flexibility for point-of-care testing in low resource environment. Advancements in CRISPR ushered new hope for the detection of genetic diseases. This review aims to explore the recent advances in CRISPR for the detection and treatment of genetic disorders. It delves into the advances like next-generation CRISPR diagnostics like nano-biosensors, digitalized CRISPR, and omics-integrated CRISPR technologies to enhance the detection limits and to facilitate the "lab-on-chip" technologies. Additionally, therapeutic potential of CRISPR technologies is reviewed to evaluate the implementation potential of CRISPR technologies for the treatment of hematological diseases, (sickle cell anemia and β-thalassemia), HIV, cancer, cardiovascular diseases, and neurological disorders, etc. Emerging CRISPR therapeutic approaches such as base/epigenetic editing and stem cells for the development of foreseen CRIPSR drugs are explored for the development of point-of-care testing. A combination of predictive models of artificial intelligence and machine learning with growing knowledge of genetic disorders has also been discussed to understand their role in acceleration of genetic detection. Ethical consideration are briefly discussed towards to end of review. This review provides the comprehensive insights into advances in the CRISPR diagnostics/therapeutics which are believed to pave the way for reliable, effective, and low-cost genetic testing.