Bacterial Detection Using the CRISPR-Cas System

The rapid and accurate detection of pathogenic bacteria is critical for public health, yet traditional methods like culture-based techniques, polymerase chain reaction (PCR), and Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) often face challenges as long turnaround time, high costs, and the necessity of specialized infrastructure. The latest advances in Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR) and CRISPR-related proteins (Cas) CRISPR-Cas based diagnostics have transformed the detection of bacteria by providing extremely sensitive, selective, and economical solutions. Its ability to recognize and cleave nucleic acids makes it possible to identify infections precisely. Several Cas proteins are used in diagnostic systems, including Cas9, Cas12, Cas13, and Cas14. This review explores the mechanisms and applications of CRISPR-Cas technologies in bacterial detection based on these Cas proteins as CRISPR-Cas9-Based Detection, CRISPR-Cas12-Based Detection, CRISPR-Cas13-Based Detection and CRISPR-Cas 14-Based Detection techniques. Ongoing innovations and integration with emerging technologies will further enhance the sensitivity, scalability, and accessibility of CRISPR-based diagnostics.