Advances in CRISPR Based Biosensing Strategies for Cancer Diagnosis

Abstract

With the development of gene editing technology, its application in tumor diagnosis is becoming increasingly widespread. The CRISPR/Cas system is an important gene editing tool that can significantly improve the early detection rate and precision diagnosis level, enabling high-throughput and high-sensitivity detection of tumors. This article focuses on CRISPR/Cas system for detecting various tumor-related targets and elaborates on its applications in tumor diagnosis from five aspects: (1) detection of tumor-derived exosomes: by recognizing the surface proteins or nucleic acids of exosomes secreted by tumor cells into blood or other samples through adaptors, the CRISPR system is activated, achieving non-invasive liquid biopsy of tumors; (2) detection of circulating tumor DNA tumor cells disseminate DNA into the circulatory system to trigger nucleic acid reactions involving gene editing enzymes, enabling the monitoring of tumor dynamic states; (3) detection of circulating tumor cells (CTCs): by using aptamers to recognize surface proteins of tumor cells or directly detecting tumor-related nucleic acids, the integrated CRISPR system allows for the detection of circulating tumor cells even in trace amounts, achieving precise diagnosis; (4) detection of tumor markers: high sensitivity is achieved through the coupling of various tumor marker aptamers and gene editing systems; (5) detection and identification of tumor microenvironments: by activating gene editing enzyme activity through differential factors in the tumor tissue microenvironment and triggering nucleic acid reactions, the diagnosis and dynamic monitoring of tumors can be achieved. The progress and bottlenecks of the CRISPR/Cas system in tumor diagnosis in the future are also discussed.