Rapid and sensitive detection of various analytes is in high demand. Apart from its application in genome editing, CRISPR–Cas also shows promises in nucleic acid detection applications. To further exploit the potential of CRISPR–Cas for detection of diverse analytes, we present a versatile biosensing platform that couples the excellent affinity of aptamers for broad-range analytes with the collateral single-strand DNA cleavage activity of CRISPR–Cas12a. We demonstrated that the biosensors developed by this platform can be used to detect protein and small molecule in human serum with a complicated background, i.e., the tumor marker alpha fetoprotein and cocaine with the detection limits of 0.07 fmol/L and 0.34 μmol/L, respectively, highlighting the advantages of simplicity, sensitivity, short detection time, and low cost compared with the state-of-the-art biosensing approaches. Altogether, this biosensing platform with plug-and-play design show great potential in the detection of diverse analytes.

对快速、灵敏地检测各种分析物的需求很高。除了在基因组编辑中的应用外，CRISPR–Cas 在核酸检测应用中也大有可为。为了进一步利用 CRISPR-Cas 检测不同分析物的潜力，我们提出了一个多功能生物传感平台，该平台将适体对广泛分析物的出色亲和力与 CRISPR-Cas12a 的附带单链 DNA 切割活性相结合。我们证明了该平台开发的生物传感器可用于检测具有复杂背景的人血清中的蛋白质和小分子，即检测限为0.07 fmol/L和0.34 μmol/L的肿瘤标志物甲胎蛋白和可卡因，分别突出了简单、灵敏、检测时间短等优点，与最先进的生物传感方法相比成本低。总之，这种具有即插即用设计的生物传感平台在检测各种分析物方面显示出巨大的潜力。