Early detection of Parkinson’s disease via aptamer-CRISPR platform

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder with a worldwide prevalence of around 9.4 million that is expected to double by 2040. It's extended prodromal phase allows irreversible neuronal loss to occur before manifestation of symptoms. Current diagnostic approaches, primarily based on clinical assessment and neuroimaging, are often delayed and lack sensitivity in the early stages, highlighting the need for an early, conclusive, and minimally invasive test. This review focuses on the integration of CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats) diagnostics with aptamers to detect PD-associated biomarkers. CRISPR systems utilising Cas12 and Cas13 enzymes offer high specificity and collateral cleavage activity that can be harnessed for signal amplification. Aptamers are short, single-stranded oligonucleotides that can be designed to identify nucleic and non-nucleic acid targets. Their fusion with CRISPR may enable the sensitive detection of key PD biomarkers such as α-Syn, dopa decarboxylase, glial fibrillary acidic protein, and neurofilament light chain in biological fluids like blood, CSF, urine, saliva, and sweat. We explore various strategies for aptamer-CRISPR integration, detection, and multiplexing techniques for parallel biomarker detection. We also examine existing diagnostic platforms and discuss barriers to clinical translation. Ultimately, aptamer-CRISPR diagnostics could represent a powerful, next-generation approach for early PD detection.