Abstract: Frequent viral epidemics in recent years urge the development of efficient and convenient techniques for virus detection and antiviral drugs development. As the most popular gene-editing tools, engineered systems based on clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) and CRISPR-associated proteins (Cas) possess high specificity and efficiency in nucleic acid targeting and cleavage, which have also been widely used in virological research and medical practice. This review briefly introduces the features of three most commonly used CRISPR/Cas systems, including Cas9, Cas12 and Cas13, and comprehensively concludes their application in virus detection and antiviral therapeutics. For virus detection, Cas9 enhances the sensitivity and accuracy of biosensor detection by combining it with biosensors such as fluorescent sensors, electrochemical sensors, and lateral flow chromatography. As for Cas12 and Cas13, multiple technologies have been developed to detect DNA and RNA viruses based on their trans-cleavage activity, such as SHERLOCK and DETECTR. As CRISPR/Cas-based antiviral techniques, Cas9 has been employed to cleave viral DNA, including genomes of DNA viruses and intermediate DNA of retroviruses, while Cas13 has been used to target viral RNA, including genomes of RNA viruses and viral mRNA. Although CRISPR/Cas systems have shown multiple advantages in sensitivity, efficiency and convenience, they still bear some limitations, such as off-target effect, immunogenicity and carcinogenicity. In summary, this manuscript provides an overview of current progress in the application of different CRISPR/Cas systems as promising tools in virus detection and antiviral therapy.
