Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University well advanced a diagnostic platform built on CRISPR-Cas technology, designed to quickly and reliably detect a broad spectrum of infectious diseases. This development was shared with socialbites.ca in connection with the Priority-2030 program managed by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation. [Attribution: Socialbites.ca report on Priority-2030]
CRISPR-Cas is native bacterial immunity against viruses. Over countless generations, bacteria have evolved numerous protective strategies and have integrated fragments of viral DNA into their own genomes. Today, CRISPR-Cas technologies are widely used in gene therapy to repair defective genes. The SPbPU researchers decided to repurpose this system to create tests capable of identifying pathogens inside the human body. [Attribution: SPbPU researchers and CRISPR overview]
The diagnostic platform relies on fluorescent probes, organic compounds that emit a fluorescent signal when the Cas12 protein recognizes the virus’s genetic material in a given sample. When a virus invades a cell, its DNA can intermingle with other viral DNA present in the cell. If the cell detects a familiar virus, the Cas protein cuts its DNA, impeding infection. [Attribution: CRISPR diagnostic mechanism overview]
The method can be configured to detect a wide range of viruses and bacteria, including influenza, measles, varicella (chickenpox), typhoid fever, hepatitis, diphtheria, SARS-CoV-2, and more. [Attribution: potential pathogen spectrum]
Programming the system requires time, but once the setup is complete, the identification of the pathogen takes only 10 to 20 minutes. Scientists indicate this interval is longer than what rapid tests typically need, yet it remains significantly faster and more accurate than PCR-based methods. Importantly, this approach does not demand specialized equipment or highly trained personnel; a sample is simply added to the reagent mix and the infection is detected in a test tube. [Attribution: performance comparison and operational requirements]
“Most of the pathway diagnostic methods used today require specialized equipment and also a relatively long time to obtain results. In addition, test results can be false positive or false negative. The frequency of false negative results is between 2% and 58% depending on the test method and conditions. The use of CRISPR-Cas systems increases the precision of diagnosis, which can significantly increase the reliability of the result,” stated Natalia Morozova, project manager and researcher at the Molecular Microbiology Laboratory, in a conversation with socialbites.ca. [Attribution: Morozova interview summary]