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SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article

Front. Microbiol.
Sec. Virology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2025.1509890

CRIPSR-Cas for hepatitis virus: A systematic review and meta-analysis of diagnostic test accuracy studies

Provisionally accepted
Zhenzhen Pan Zhenzhen Pan Ling Xu Ling Xu Zihao Fan Zihao Fan Feng Ren Feng Ren *
  • Beijing Institute of Hepatology, Beijing Youan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, Shaanxi Province, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Background and Aims: Hepatitis viruses pose a significant global health challenge, necessitating accurate and efficient diagnostic methods. The CRISPR-Cas system, renowned for gene editing, shows potential tool in virus detection. This systematic review and meta-analysis aims to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of CRISPR-Cas-based tests for hepatitis viruses, aiming to provide evidence for their effectiveness in clinical settings.Methods: Studies from Web of Science, PubMed, and CNKI were analyzed. A bivariate random-effects model was employed to compute pooled estimates for sensitivity, specificity, and the area under the summary receiver operating characteristic (SROC) curve. Additionally, the methodological quality of the studies was evaluated using the Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies 2 (QUADAS-2) tool.Results: Following a rigorous screening process, 14 studies meeting our inclusion criteria were selected from an initial pool of 657 studies. The pooled sensitivity and specificity of the CRISPR-Cas system in hepatitis virus detection showed high sensitivity (0.99, 95% CI: 0.95-1.00) and specificity (0.99, 95% CI: 0.93-1.00) with SROC area 1.00 (95% CI: 0.99-1.00). However, considering the notable heterogeneity among the included studies, subgroup analyses and meta-regression were conducted. These analyses revealed that the type of hepatitis virus detected and the format of the final result presentation could be potential sources of this heterogeneity.Conclusions: This systematic review and meta-analysis demonstrates the high diagnostic accuracy of CRISPR-Cas system in detecting hepatitis viruses. However, conclusions are limited by study number and quality. Therefore, more high-quality data are still needed to support this conclusion.

    Keywords: CRISPR-Cas, Hepatitis virus, Nucleic acid testing, diagnostic, Meta-analysis

    Received: 29 Oct 2024; Accepted: 05 Feb 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Pan, Xu, Fan and Ren. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Feng Ren, Beijing Institute of Hepatology, Beijing Youan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, 100069, Shaanxi Province, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.