scholarly journals CRISPR-Based COVID-19 Testing: Toward Next-Generation Point-of-Care Diagnostics

Author(s):  
Uyanga Ganbaatar ◽  
Changchun Liu

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, people are becoming infected at an alarming rate, individuals are unknowingly spreading disease, and more lives are lost every day. There is an immediate need for a simple, rapid, early and sensitive point-of-care testing for COVID-19 disease. However, current testing approaches do not meet such need. Recently, clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)-based detection methods have received substantial attention for nucleic acid-based molecular testing due to their simplicity, high sensitivity and specificity. This review explores the various CRISPR-based COVID-19 detection methods and related diagnostic devices. As with any emerging technology, CRISPR/Cas-based nucleic acid testing methods have several challenges that must be overcome for practical applications in clinics and hospitals. More importantly, these detection methods are not limited to COVID-19 but can be applied to detect any type of pathogen, virus, and fungi that may threaten humans, agriculture, and food industries in resource-limited settings. CRISPR/Cas-based detection methods have the potential to become simpler, more reliable, more affordable, and faster in the near future, which is highly important for achieving point-of-care diagnostics.

Micromachines ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (7) ◽  
pp. 826
Author(s):  
Yanting Liu ◽  
Xuming Zhang

This review aims to summarize the recent advances and progress of plasmonic biosensors based on patterned plasmonic nanostructure arrays that are integrated with microfluidic chips for various biomedical detection applications. The plasmonic biosensors have made rapid progress in miniaturization sensors with greatly enhanced performance through the continuous advances in plasmon resonance techniques such as surface plasmon resonance (SPR) and localized SPR (LSPR)-based refractive index sensing, SPR imaging (SPRi), and surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS). Meanwhile, microfluidic integration promotes multiplexing opportunities for the plasmonic biosensors in the simultaneous detection of multiple analytes. Particularly, different types of microfluidic-integrated plasmonic biosensor systems based on versatile patterned plasmonic nanostructured arrays were reviewed comprehensively, including their methods and relevant typical works. The microfluidics-based plasmonic biosensors provide a high-throughput platform for the biochemical molecular analysis with the advantages such as ultra-high sensitivity, label-free, and real time performance; thus, they continue to benefit the existing and emerging applications of biomedical studies, chemical analyses, and point-of-care diagnostics.


NANO ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (02) ◽  
pp. 1850022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lishi Huang ◽  
Caihong Yuan ◽  
Wenli Chen ◽  
Fanshu Zeng ◽  
Hui Xu ◽  
...  

This study compared the susceptibility of different triangular silver nanoprisms (TSNPRs) towards the etching of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), a catalytical product of glucose oxidase (GOx). The influence of capping agents and structural size have been explored towards the oxidation of silver nanoprisms. Results indicated that the etching of the TSNPRs was extremely effected by surface capping agents, in which citrate contributed a highest H2O2-sensitive effect in the absence of secondary capping ligands (e.g., glycerol and ethanol). Meanwhile, compared to bigger TSNPRs, smaller nanoprisms exhibited a different signal output of plasma resonance peak through intensity decrease rather than wavelength shift, making them more H2O2-etching susceptibile. In virtue of GOx etching-based system, TSNPRs with a small size and citrate capping were served as a substitute for big nanoprisms to sense glucose, offering a number of advantages such as high sensitivity, improved calibration, time-saving and extended detection ranges. Moreover, the small sized TSNPRs capping with citrate alone have been expected to be of great interest in the trace of GOx, providing an ultrahigh sensitive GOx etching-based analytical platform for point-of-care diagnostics towards other analytes (e.g., DNA, protein).


2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
Léonard Bezinge ◽  
Akkapol Suea-Ngam ◽  
Andrew J. deMello ◽  
Chih-Jen Shih

This account reviews the major amplification strategies utilizing nanomaterials in electrochemical biosensing for robust and sensitive molecular diagnostics.


2020 ◽  
Vol 117 (41) ◽  
pp. 25722-25731 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rose A. Lee ◽  
Helena De Puig ◽  
Peter Q. Nguyen ◽  
Nicolaas M. Angenent-Mari ◽  
Nina M. Donghia ◽  
...  

Asymptomatic carriers ofPlasmodiumparasites hamper malaria control and eradication. Achieving malaria eradication requires ultrasensitive diagnostics for low parasite density infections (<100 parasites per microliter blood) that work in resource-limited settings (RLS). Sensitive point-of-care diagnostics are also lacking for nonfalciparum malaria, which is characterized by lower density infections and may require additional therapy for radical cure. Molecular methods, such as PCR, have high sensitivity and specificity, but remain high-complexity technologies impractical for RLS. Here we describe a CRISPR-based diagnostic for ultrasensitive detection and differentiation ofPlasmodium falciparum,Plasmodium vivax,Plasmodium ovale, andPlasmodium malariae, using the nucleic acid detection platform SHERLOCK (specific high-sensitivity enzymatic reporter unlocking). We present a streamlined, field-applicable, diagnostic comprised of a 10-min SHERLOCK parasite rapid extraction protocol, followed by SHERLOCK for 60 min forPlasmodiumspecies-specific detection via fluorescent or lateral flow strip readout. We optimized one-pot, lyophilized, isothermal assays with a simplified sample preparation method independent of nucleic acid extraction, and showed that these assays are capable of detection below two parasites per microliter blood, a limit of detection suggested by the World Health Organization. OurP. falciparumandP. vivaxassays exhibited 100% sensitivity and specificity on clinical samples (5P. falciparumand 10P. vivaxsamples). This work establishes a field-applicable diagnostic for ultrasensitive detection of asymptomatic carriers as well as a rapid point-of-care clinical diagnostic for nonfalciparum malaria species and low parasite densityP. falciparuminfections.


Biosensors ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 119 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Migliozzi ◽  
Thomas Guibentif

Infectious diseases and antimicrobial resistance are major burdens in developing countries, where very specific conditions impede the deployment of established medical infrastructures. Since biosensing devices are nowadays very common in developed countries, particularly in the field of diagnostics, they are at a stage of maturity at which other potential outcomes can be explored, especially on their possibilities for multiplexing and automation to reduce the time-to-results. However, the translation is far from being trivial. In order to understand the factors and barriers that can facilitate or hinder the application of biosensors in resource-limited settings, we analyze the context from several angles. First, the technology of the devices themselves has to be rethought to take into account the specific needs and the available means of these countries. For this, we describe the partition of a biosensor into its functional shells, which define the information flow from the analyte to the end-user, and by following this partition we assess the strengths and weaknesses of biosensing devices in view of their specific technological development and challenging deployment in low-resource environments. Then, we discuss the problem of cost reduction by pointing out transversal factors, such as throughput and cost of mistreatment, that need to be re-considered when analyzing the cost-effectiveness of biosensing devices. Beyond the technical landscape, the compliance with regulations is also a major aspect that is described with its link to the validation of the devices and to the acceptance from the local medical personnel. Finally, to learn from a successful case, we analyze a breakthrough inexpensive biosensor that is showing high potential with respect to many of the described aspects. We conclude by mentioning both some transversal benefits of deploying biosensors in developing countries, and the key factors that can drive such applications.


Plants ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 461 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefano Panno ◽  
Slavica Matić ◽  
Antonio Tiberini ◽  
Andrea Giovanni Caruso ◽  
Patrizia Bella ◽  
...  

In the last decades, the evolution of molecular diagnosis methods has generated different advanced tools, like loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP). Currently, it is a well-established technique, applied in different fields, such as the medicine, agriculture, and food industries, owing to its simplicity, specificity, rapidity, and low-cost efforts. LAMP is a nucleic acid amplification under isothermal conditions, which is highly compatible with point-of-care (POC) analysis and has the potential to improve the diagnosis in plant protection. The great advantages of LAMP have led to several upgrades in order to implement the technique. In this review, the authors provide an overview reporting in detail the different LAMP steps, focusing on designing and main characteristics of the primer set, different methods of result visualization, evolution and different application fields, reporting in detail LAMP application in plant virology, and the main advantages of the use of this technique.


Sensors ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (7) ◽  
pp. 1715 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdul Shakoor ◽  
James Grant ◽  
Marco Grande ◽  
David. R. S. Cumming

A range of nanophotonic sensors composed of different materials and device configurations have been developed over the past two decades. These sensors have achieved high performance in terms of sensitivity and detection limit. The size of onchip nanophotonic sensors is also small and they are regarded as a strong candidate to provide the next generation sensors for a range of applications including chemical and biosensing for point-of-care diagnostics. However, the apparatus used to perform measurements of nanophotonic sensor chips is bulky, expensive and requires experts to operate them. Thus, although integrated nanophotonic sensors have shown high performance and are compact themselves their practical applications are limited by the lack of a compact readout system required for their measurements. To achieve the aim of using nanophotonic sensors in daily life it is important to develop nanophotonic sensors which are not only themselves small, but their readout system is also portable, compact and easy to operate. Recognizing the need to develop compact readout systems for onchip nanophotonic sensors, different groups around the globe have started to put efforts in this direction. This review article discusses different works carried out to develop integrated nanophotonic sensors with compact readout systems, which are divided into two categories; onchip nanophotonic sensors with monolithically integrated readout and onchip nanophotonic sensors with separate but compact readout systems.


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