Development of a CRISPR/Cas12a-mediated aptasensor for Mpox virus antigen detection

The emergence and rapid spread of Mpox (formerly monkeypox) have caused significant societal challenges. Adequate and appropriate diagnostics procedures are an urgent necessity. Herein, we discover a pair of aptamers through the systematic evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment (SELEX) that exhibit high affinity and bind to different sites towards the A29 protein of the Mpox virus. Subsequently, we propose a facile, sensitive, convenient CRISPR/Cas12a-mediated aptasensor for detecting the A29 antigen. The procedure employs the bivalent aptamers recognition, which induces the formation of a proximity switch probe and initiates subsequent cascade strand displacement reactions, then triggers CRISPR/Cas12a DNA trans-cleavage to achieve the sensitive detection of Mpox. Our method enables selective and ultrasensitive evaluation of the A29 protein within the range of 1 ng mL