Nucleic acid detection is an important method for pathogen identification but can be expensive, have variable sensitivity and specificity, and require substantial infrastructure. Two new methods capitalize on unexpected in vitro properties of clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) effectors, turning activated nucleases into intrinsic amplifiers of a specific nucleic-acid binding event. These effectors are coupled with a variety of reporters and used in tandem with existing isothermal amplification methods to produce sensitive, sequence-specific pathogen identification in multiple field-deployable formats. While still in their infancy, these modular CRISPR-based methods have the potential to transform pathogen identification and other aspects of infectious disease diagnostics.

中文翻译：

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利用CRISPR效应器进行传染病诊断

核酸检测是用于病原体鉴定的重要方法，但价格昂贵，灵敏度和特异性可变，并且需要大量基础设施。两种新方法利用了簇状规则间隔的短回文重复序列（CRISPR）效应子的出乎意料的体外特性，将活化的核酸酶转变为特定核酸结合事件的固有扩增子。这些效应器与各种报告基因偶联，并与现有的等温扩增方法结合使用，以多种现场可部署的形式产生敏感的，序列特异性的病原体鉴定。虽然仍处于起步阶段，但这些基于CRISPR的模块化方法具有改变病原体识别和传染病诊断其他方面的潜力。