Research progress of diagnosis platforms based on CRISPR/Cas system

At present, nucleic acid testing technology has been widely used in clinical laboratory diagnosis. Conventional detection technique such as real-time PCR is complicated, time consuming, and dependent on specific instruments. Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/CRISPR associated protein (Cas) system is an adaptive immune defense system against viruses in bacteria and archaea, which has been developed into a powerful technology for genome editing. Recently, the leading groups engaged in CRISPR have set up new tools for nucleic acid detection based on Cas13a, Cas12a and newly discovered protein-Cas14, which plays an important role in rapid diagnosis of infectious diseases, detection of gene mutations in cancer and genotyping. Since they are ultrasensitive, specific, rapid and cost-effective, it is expected to bring great potential for molecular diagnosis. In this review, the mechanism of CRISPR/Cas system and the principle, the applications of the newly-developed diagnostic platforms are introduced. What′s more, the advantages, limitations and prospects of the technologies are summarized. Key words: CRISPR-Cas systems; CRISPR-associated proteins; Endonucleases; Sensitivity and specificity