Programming the trans-cleavage Activity of CRISPR-Cas13a by Single-Strand DNA Blocker and Its Biosensing Application

Anal Chem. 2022 Mar 8;94(9):3987-3996. doi: 10.1021/acs.analchem.1c05124. Epub 2022 Feb 22.

Abstract

The precise and controllable programming of the trans-cleavage activity of the CRISPR-Cas13a systems is significant but challenging for fabricating high-performance biosensing systems toward various kinds of biomolecule targets. In this work, we have demonstrated that under a critical low Mg2+ concentration, a simple and short single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) probe free of any modification can efficiently prevent the assembly of crRNA and LwaCas13a only by partially binding with the crRNA repeat region, thereby blocking the trans-cleavage activity of the LwaCas13a system. Furthermore, we have demonstrated that the blocked trans-cleavage activity of the LwaCas13a system can be recovered by various kinds of biologically important substances as long as they could specifically release the blocker DNA from the crRNA in a target-responsive manner, providing a facile route for the quantification of diverse biomarkers such as enzymes, antigens/proteins, and exosomes. To the best of our knowledge, this is reported for the first time that a simple ssDNA can be employed as the switch element to control the crRNA structure and regulate the trans-cleavage activity of Cas13a, which has enriched the CRISPR-Cas13a sensing toolbox and will greatly expand its application scope.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • CRISPR-Cas Systems* / genetics
  • Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats*
  • DNA
  • DNA, Single-Stranded

Substances

  • DNA, Single-Stranded
  • DNA