Development of Gene-Editing-Based 'Cancer' Diagnostic Platform Achievable Within 40 Minutes

A gene-editing platform capable of diagnosing cancer within 40 minutes has been developed through a joint research effort between Korea and the United States.

On the 5th, the Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology announced that Dr. Kang Tae-jun's research team at the Bio-Nano Research Center, in collaboration with Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), Harvard Medical School (HMS), and Sungkyunkwan University, developed a cancer diagnostic platform called ‘SCOPE (Self-amplified and CRISPR-aided Operation to Profile Extracellular Vesicles)’.

(From left) Ja-yeon Song, Professor at Sungkyunkwan University, Tae-joon Kang, Ph.D. at Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology. Provided by Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology

This platform, developed using mRNA (messenger RNA), is expected to be utilized for early diagnosis, monitoring treatment responses, and assessing tumor recurrence potential by precisely observing cancer-related gene mutations.

Recently, liquid biopsy methods using biomarkers present in bodily fluids such as blood and urine have gained attention as ways to diagnose or monitor cancer.

This method involves detecting specific genetic materials such as DNA and RNA secreted from tumor cells by observing changes like tumor cell proliferation and death. It has the advantage of being simpler than tissue biopsy or imaging diagnostics.

However, to accurately diagnose cancer using liquid biopsy, precise detection of biomarkers in bodily fluids is required, but the extremely low quantity has made clinical application challenging.

According to the joint research team, SCOPE overcomes these limitations by significantly amplifying the mRNA of extracellular vesicles (EVs) released by tumor cells using the CRISPR gene-editing tool (CRISPR-Cas13a) for detection.

In practice, the joint research team applied the developed diagnostic platform to animal models and diagnosed early-stage lung cancer with only a tiny amount (40㎕, microliters (10^-6 liters)) of extracellular vesicle samples. Additionally, in samples from colorectal cancer patients, they detected cancer mutation genes with higher sensitivity and specificity than conventional PCR tests, enhancing clinical applicability.

Notably, SCOPE can process 16 samples simultaneously and provide diagnostic results within 40 minutes. Furthermore, through collaboration with a domestic molecular diagnostics company, the research team miniaturized the equipment, enabling easy use of SCOPE in medical and research settings without the need for complex existing devices.

Dr. Kang introduced SCOPE as “an efficient system capable of detecting major cancer mutations with unprecedented sensitivity.” He added, “We expect it to support rapid decision-making in cancer diagnosis and monitoring by detecting various cancer-related biomarkers through a simplified method.”

Meanwhile, this research was conducted with support from the Ministry of Science and ICT’s Bio-Medical Technology Development Project, Nanomaterial Technology Development Project, Mid-Career Researcher Support Project, and the Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology. The research results were published online on the 7th of last month in the journal ‘Nature Biotechnology (IF 33.1).’

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.