Universal CRISPR/Cas12a-G4 DNAzyme biosensing platform for rapid detection of nucleic acid and non-nucleic acid targets.

Abstract

The clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) and CRISPR-associated proteins (Cas) system enables sensitive and specific biomolecular detection due to its programmability, high fidelity, and signal amplification. Herein, a novel universal CRISPR/Cas12a-G4 DNAzyme-TMB (Cas-GT) enzymatic biosensing platform was constructed. This platform regulates the catalytic function of G4 DNAzyme through the trans-cleavage activity of Cas12a, achieving an "off/on" response of the TMB-H2O2 enzymatic signal for nucleic acid, protein, and metal ion targets. In proof-of-concept experiments, the detection limit of Cas-GT for in vitro transcribed SARS-CoV-2 RNA reached as low as 100 aM and it distinguished clinical positive from negative patients with good diagnostic performance (AUC = 0.9420). It is also suitable for protein targets, enabling quantitative analysis of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) within the range of 0-100 ng mL-1, with results highly consistent with clinical chemiluminescence immunoassay (CLIA). For small-molecule targets, Cas-GT exhibited good universality, achieving quantitative detection of Hg2+ within the range of 0.06-4 ng mL-1, with recovery rates of 93%-107.4% in spiked river water samples, showing no significant difference from ICP-MS (P = 0.9968). In summary, Cas-GT is a simple, sensitive, rapid, and label-free enzymatic biosensing platform with significant potential for clinical biomarker detection and environmental pollution monitoring.