Progress of Magnetic Particles-Integrated CRISPR/Cas Biosensors for Pathogen Bacteria Detection: Design, Mechanism and Application

Ensuring food safety through rapid, sensitive, and point-of-care (POC) detection of microbial pathogens is crucial for protecting public health and minimizing the socio-economic losses associated with foodborne diseases. Despite stringent regulatory measures, foodborne illnesses caused by microbial contamination continue to pose a significant global challenge. In this context, the emergence of CRISPR/Cas systems has significantly improved the performance of biosensors due to their programmability, high specificity, and precise recognition of target RNA and DNA sequences. Following target recognition, Cas proteins exhibit both cis- and trans-cleavage activities, enabling highly sensitive signal amplification. To achieve rapid analysis and low detection limits, recent studies have increasingly focused on integrating CRISPR/Cas system with magnetic particles (MPs). MPs offer key advantages, including superparamagnetism, biocompatibility, and facile surface functionalization, which enhance target enrichment, assay speed, and analytical sensitivity. Accordingly, substantial progress has been made in MP-conjugated CRISPR/Cas biosensors for the detection of diverse foodborne microbial pathogens. This review comprehensively summarizes recent advances in the integration strategies of magnetic particles with CRISPR/Cas-based biosensing platforms for the quantitative detection of microbial pathogens. Particular emphasis is placed on performance metrics, assay design, and the feasibility of these systems for POC applications, highlighting their potential to enhance food safety monitoring.