A rapid isothermal CRISPR‒Cas13a diagnostic test for genital herpes simplex virus infection: associated data

Early diagnosis plays a pivotal role in the effective management of herpes simplex virus type 1 and 2 (HSV-1/2) infection. However, existing diagnostic methods are not widely available that required expensive or additional equipment for conducting examinations and result readouts, which can limit their utility in resource-constrained settings. Here, we successfully developed a CRISPR-based dual-target diagnostic system for the detection and genotyping of HSV-1 and HSV-2. Our assay demonstrated a high sensitivity of 96.15% and 94.85% for HSV-1 and HSV-2, respectively, with a specificity of 100% compared to a commercial qPCR assay when tested on 188 clinical samples. Furthermore, we have adapted our assay to be used with a mobile app or naked eyes-based colorimetric readout, which showed a limit of detection of 1 copy/μL for both HSV-1 and HSV-2 DNA when increased input of the RPA product was used. These findings highlight the excellent performance of our CRISPR-based diagnostic in detecting HSV and its potential for point-of-care testing in resource-constrained settings.