• Crisper-based methods in the diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2
  • Abbas hajizadeh,1,* Mohsen Yaghuobi,2 Mohammad Purghasem,3 Mostafa Zare,4 Moein Iranmanesh,5
    1. Biology Research Center, Faculty of Basic Sciences, Imam Hossein University, Tehran, Iran
    2. Biology Research Center, Faculty of Basic Sciences, Imam Hossein University, Tehran, Iran
    3. Department of Medical Biotechnology, Faculty of Paramedicine, Guilan University of Medical Sciences, Langarud, Iran
    4. Biology Research Center, Faculty of Basic Sciences, Imam Hossein University, Tehran, Iran
    5. Biology Research Center, Faculty of Basic Sciences, Imam Hossein University, Tehran, Iran


  • Introduction: Viral diseases have always been a global concern. Recently, SARS-COV-2 virus has caused a pandemic, leads to death. Because of the high rate of prevalence, the detection of this disease in the early stages is important in the outbreak control. There are some conventional techniques to diagnose this virus. Nucleic acid-based detection (NAD) methods, such as different types of polymerase chain reaction (PCR), loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP), nucleic acid sequence-based amplification (NASBA), etc., have been used for this aim, among them, real time PCR is the gold standard for the detection of the virus. Immunoassays, such as, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and chemiluminescent immunoassay are extensively used for the detection of the virus and/or the investigation of the previous exposure to the virus. However, these methods have low specificity (because of the cross-reactivity of antibodies) and sensitivity. Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR), a part of the acquired immunity system in prokaryotes, is a versatile system which has been exploited in different areas in biology and medicine, including genome editing and nucleic acid detection. Owing to the programmable nature of CRISPR-Cas system, it is a proper option for the development of a rapid, sensitive and specific nucleic acid-based detection method. DETECTR (DNA endonuclease-targeted CRISPR trans reporter) that is based on CRISPR–Cas12, SHERLOCK (specific high-sensitivity enzymatic reporter unlocking), which relies on the collateral cleavage activity of Cas13a, MCCD (multiple cross displacement amplification (MCDA) combined with CRISPRR-Cas12a-based Detection), SENSR (sensitive enzymatic nucleic acid sequence reporter), which is based on CRISPR-Cas13a are some of the developed CRISPR/Cas systems for the detection of the viral agent of COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2.In this review we are going to discuss about the different CRISPR-based systems for detection of SARS-CoV-2.
  • Methods: DETECTR SHERLOCK MCCD
  • Results: Crispr-based detection methods is sensitive, specific, fast and cost effective.
  • Conclusion: Recently, CRISPR system is widely used in various fields of bacterial typing, genetic engineering and detection of various pathogens. Due to human progress in these fields, this system is used for fast, accurate and cost-effective diagnosis of corona virus from clinical samples.
  • Keywords: SARS-COV-2, COVID19, CRISPR/Cas system, Detection