Potential of CRISPR/Cas system as emerging tools in the detection of viral hepatitis infection

Abstract Viral hepatitis, the most common cause of inflammatory liver disease, affects hundreds of millions of people worldwide. It is most commonly associated with one of the five nominal hepatitis viruses (hepatitis A–E viruses). HBV and HCV can cause acute infections and lifelong, persistent chronic infections, while HAV and HEV cause self-limiting acute infections. HAV and HEV are predominantly transmitted through the fecal-oral route, while diseases transmitted by the other forms are blood-borne diseases. Despite the success in the treatment of viral hepatitis and the development of HAV and HBV vaccines, there is still no accurate diagnosis at the genetic level for these diseases. Timely diagnosis of viral hepatitis is a prerequisite for efficient therapeutic intervention. Due to the specificity and sensitivity of clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat (CRISPR)/CRISPR-associated sequences (Cas) technology, it has the potential to meet critical needs in the field of diagnosis of viral diseases and can be used in versatile point-of-care (POC) diagnostic applications to detect viruses with both DNA and RNA genomes. In this review, we discuss recent advances in CRISPR–Cas diagnostics tools and assess their potential and prospects in rapid and effective strategies for the diagnosis and control of viral hepatitis infection.