Application and development of isothermal amplification and gene editing technology in cardiovascular diseases

Abstract Cardiovascular disease (CVD) continues to be the leading cause of death and disability worldwide, creating a pressing need for diagnostic approaches that are rapid, sensitive, and accessible, particularly for early detection and point-of-care testing (POCT). Traditional clinical instruments, including biomarker assays and imaging modalities, are still limited by their lack of timeliness and inadequate facilitation of personalized risk assessment. Recently, nucleic acid–based biosensing has emerged as a promising strategy for cardiovascular diagnostics. Isothermal amplification methods, including loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) and recombinase polymerase amplification (RPA), enable fast and highly sensitive nucleic acid detection under constant-temperature conditions, making them well suited for portable and decentralized testing. In parallel, CRISPR/Cas-based detection systems offer programmable and sequence-specific recognition, and their integration with isothermal amplification has been experimentally shown to substantially enhance the detection of low-abundance cardiovascular nucleic acid biomarkers. Beyond diagnostics, CRISPR technologies are also being applied to mechanistic studies and gene-based therapeutic research. However, fully autonomous diagnostic–therapeutic closed-loop systems remain largely conceptual. This review summarizes current biosensing platforms and discusses their translational potential in cardiovascular precision medicine.