BfCas12a-driven CRISPR-Cas assay for detection of SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acids

The 2019 COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the urgent need for adaptable point-of-care diagnostics capable of swiftly detecting emerging pathogens. While RT-PCR has caught the attention as most used molecular test during pandemic recent advancements in alternate technologies include CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats)-Cas (CRISPR associated protein) based diagnostic tools tailored for pathogen detection. This study introduces an innovative CRISPR nucleic acid diagnostic, BCS-NABing (BfCas12a Sensor for Nucleic Acid Based-testing), utilizing Cas12a from Butyrivibrio fibrosolvens MD2001. BCS demonstrates similar sensitivity, detecting SARS-CoV-2 in synthetic as well as in patient-derived samples as LbCas12a. The technology employs lateral flow and fluorescence readouts, showcasing BCS-NABing is amenable to both. BCS-NABing significantly expands the nucleic acid diagnostic toolkit, offering a versatile platform adaptable to future pandemics and other infectious and genetic diseases, revolutionizing rapid and precise pathogen identification at the point of care.