Int J Biol Sci 2021; 17(8):2080-2088. doi:10.7150/ijbs.60655 This issue Cite
Review
1. Department of Clinical Pharmacology, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha 410078, P. R. China; Institute of Clinical Pharmacology, Central South University; Hunan Key Laboratory of Pharmacogenetics, Changsha 410078, P. R. China.
2. Engineering Research Center of Applied Technology of Pharmacogenomics, Ministry of Education, 110 Xiangya Road, Changsha 410078, P. R. China.
3. National Clinical Research Center for Geriatric Disorders, 87 Xiangya Road, Changsha 410008, Hunan, P.R. China.
4. Hunan Key Laboratory of Precise Diagnosis and Treatment of Gastrointestinal Tumor, Changsha 410078, P. R. China.
5. Department of Pharmacy, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha 410008, P. R. China.
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), an infectious disease caused by Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has posed a persistent global threat. The transmission of SARS-CoV-2 is wide and swift. Rapid detection of the viral RNA and effective therapy are imperative to prevent the worldwide spread of the new infectious disease. Clustered Regularly-Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR)- CRISPR-associated protein (Cas) system is an RNA-directed adaptive immune system, and it has been transformed into a gene editing tool. Applications of CRISPR-Cas system involves in many fields, such as human gene therapy, drug discovery and disease diagnosis. Under the background of COVID-19 pandemic, CRISPR-Cas system shows hidden capacity to fight the emergency in many aspects. This review will focus on the role of gene editing in COVID-19 diagnosis and treatment. We will describe the potential use of CRISPR-Cas-based system in combating COVID-19, from diagnosis to treatment. Furthermore, the limitation and perspectives of this novel technology are also evaluated.
Keywords: COVID-19, CRISPR-Cas, gene editing, SARS-CoV-2, diagnosis, mechanism research, therapeutics