Xue Yi, Chen Zhenzhen, Zhang Wenxian, Zhang Jingjing
State Key Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry for Life Science, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Chemistry and Biomedicine Innovation Center (ChemBIC), Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China.
Bioengineering (Basel). 2022 Jun 29;9(7):291. doi: 10.3390/bioengineering9070291.
Over the past decades, RNA viruses have been threatened people's health and led to global health emergencies. Significant progress has been made in diagnostic methods and antiviral therapeutics for combating RNA viruses. ELISA and RT-qPCR are reliable methods to detect RNA viruses, but they suffer from time-consuming procedures and limited sensitivities. Vaccines are effective to prevent virus infection and drugs are useful for antiviral treatment, while both need a relatively long research and development cycle. In recent years, CRISPR-based gene editing and modifying tools have been expanded rapidly. In particular, the CRISPR-Cas13 system stands out from the CRISPR-Cas family due to its accurate RNA-targeting ability, which makes it a promising tool for RNA virus diagnosis and therapy. Here, we review the current applications of the CRISPR-Cas13 system against RNA viruses, from diagnostics to therapeutics, and use some medically important RNA viruses such as SARS-CoV-2, dengue virus, and HIV-1 as examples to demonstrate the great potential of the CRISPR-Cas13 system.
在过去几十年里，RNA病毒一直威胁着人们的健康，并引发了全球卫生紧急事件。在对抗RNA病毒的诊断方法和抗病毒治疗方面已经取得了重大进展。酶联免疫吸附测定（ELISA）和逆转录定量聚合酶链反应（RT-qPCR）是检测RNA病毒的可靠方法，但它们存在操作耗时且灵敏度有限的问题。疫苗对预防病毒感染有效，药物对抗病毒治疗有用，然而两者都需要相对较长的研发周期。近年来，基于CRISPR的基因编辑和修饰工具迅速扩展。特别是，CRISPR-Cas13系统因其精确的RNA靶向能力在CRISPR-Cas家族中脱颖而出，这使其成为用于RNA病毒诊断和治疗的有前途的工具。在此，我们综述了CRISPR-Cas13系统针对RNA病毒的当前应用，从诊断到治疗，并以一些具有医学重要性的RNA病毒如严重急性呼吸综合征冠状病毒2（SARS-CoV-2）、登革病毒和人类免疫缺陷病毒1型（HIV-1）为例，展示CRISPR-Cas13系统的巨大潜力。
