COVID-19 testing has been a cause of concern among several countries ever since the very onset of the outbreak. There are not enough options to test the deadly virus and those do exist are very time taking. This gab can be bridged with the use of CRISPR technology. A US-bases Sherlock Biosciences has received Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for Sherlock™ CRISPR SARS-CoV-2 kit for the detection of the virus that causes COVID-19.
CRISPR-based SHERLOCK (Specific High Sensitivity Enzymatic Reporter UnLOCKing) technique for the detection of COVID-19 works in three steps and can be complete in approximately 1 hour.
This can be done in three steps:
Step 1: 25 min incubation – isothermal amplification of the extracted nucleic acid sample using a commercially available recombinase polymerase amplification (RPA) kit.
Step 2: 30 min incubation – detection of pre-amplified viral RNA sequence using Cas13.
Step 3: 2 min incubation – visual readout of the detection result by eye using a commercially-available paper dipstick.
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“SHERLOCK enables rapid identification of a single alteration in a DNA or RNA sequence in a single molecule. That precision, coupled with its capability to be deployed to multiplex over 100 targets or as a simple point-of-care system, will make it a critical addition to the arsenal of rapid diagnostics already being used to detect COVID-19” says Sherlock Biosciences co-founder and board member, David R. Walt, Ph.D., who co-leads the Mass General Brigham Center for COVID Innovation.
“While it has only been a little over a year since the launch of Sherlock Biosciences, today we have made history with the very first FDA-authorized use of CRISPR technology, which will be used to rapidly identify the virus that causes COVID-19. We are committed to providing this initial wave of testing kits to physicians, laboratory experts, and researchers worldwide to enable them to assist frontline workers leading the charge against this pandemic” Rahul Dhanda – co-founder, president and CEO of Sherlock Biosciences – was quoted as saying by BioSpectrum.