CRISPR/Cas12a-based immunosensors on magnetic beads for rapid cytokine detection: IL-6 as an example

The rapid detection of biomarkers like nucleic acids and proteins in clinical samples can significantly enhance clinical outcomes in chronic diseases through early diagnosis and prevention. The Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeat (CRISPR) technology, coupled with the Cas protein, represents an innovative biosensing approach, renowned for its remarkable accuracy, specificity, and sensitivity. This technology has effectively harnessed the success in the detection of a broad range of analytes such as nucleic acids, proteins, et al. Cytokines are signally molecules between immune cells and biomarkers for many diseases. It is challenging to detect cytokines. In this study, taking advantage of magnetic beads and immunoassays, we developed a CRISPR/Cas12a-based immunosensors on magnetic beads, which exhibits rapid and highly sensitive detection of interleukin-6 (IL-6) down to 0.1 pg/mL within a compact reaction system excluding the need for additional sample purification or amplification steps. This breakthrough underscores its potential as a formidable alternative for future protein detection in both industrial and medical applications.