Detection of SARS-CoV-2 by CRISPR/Cas12a-Enhanced Colorimetry

The outbreak of COVID-19 caused a worldwide public health crisis. Large-scale population screening is an effective means to control the spread of COVID-19. Reverse transcription–polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) and serology assays are the most available techniques for SARS-CoV-2 detection; however, they suffer from either less sensitivity and accuracy or low instrument accessibility for screening. To balance the sensitivity, specificity, and test availability, here, we developed enhanced colorimetry, which is termed as a magnetic pull-down-assisted colorimetric method based on the CRISPR/Cas12a system (M-CDC), for SARS-CoV-2 detection. By this method, SARS-CoV-2 RNA from synthetic sequences and cultured viruses can be detected by the naked eye based on gold nanoparticle (AuNP) probes, with a detection limit of 50 RNA copies per reaction. With CRISPR/Cas12a-assisted detection, SARS-CoV-2 can be specifically distinguished from other closely related viruses. M-CDC was further used to analyze 41 clinical samples, whose performance was 95.12%, consistent with that of an approved Clinical RT-qPCR Diagnosis kit. The developed M-CDC method is not dependent on sophisticated instruments, which makes it potentially valuable to be applied for SARS-CoV-2 screening under poor conditions.