COVID-19: Current Trends in Invitro Diagnostics

Abstract

The novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 is the seventh known species of coronavirus, infectious to human beings. The pandemic COVID-19 spread all over the world with an unprecedented spreading rate after its first appearance in Wuhan, China. As a novel viral disease there in no antiviral treatment or vaccine for the COVID-19. At present, the early detection and the quarantine of infected patients are the ways to stop the spreading of the disease. This review will discuss about the current invitro diagnostic methods used worldwide for the early and accurate diagnosis of COVID-19. Currently the nucleic acid based polymerase chain reaction is used as the reliable diagnostic platform and antigen/antibody detection immunoassays are playing the role of screening tests for early detection and prognosis in COVID-19 treatment.

Summary of the Detection Kits for SARS-CoV-2 Approved by the National Medical Products Administration of China and Their Application for Diagnosis of COVID-19

“…Currently, the most widely approved tests for the diagnosis of COVID-19 are based on PCR (Arun Krishnan et al 2020;Hu et al 2020;James and Alwneh 2020;Meo et al 2020;Oliveira et al 2020;Priyadarshi et al 2020;Shen et al 2020;Xu T et al 2020;. Two different strategies are used for PCRbased assays: rRT-PCR and isothermal amplification PCR.…”

“…Two different strategies are used for PCRbased assays: rRT-PCR and isothermal amplification PCR. By amplifying the viral genetic material, rRT-PCR achieves high sensitivity and specificity for COVID-19 diagnosis, and is quantitative in nature, whereas isothermal amplification PCR is qualitative (Arun Krishnan et al 2020;Shen et al 2020). Compared to rRT-PCR, the latter method is expected to be more cost effective and less time consuming.…”

“…In these strategies, primers first bind to a template, and then amplification is performed at a constant temperature using a polymerase with strand-displacement activity that separates the strand annealed to the target sequence for detection. Amplified gene products can be detected through photometry, chemiluminescence, immunofluorescence due to hybridisation capture and lateral flow immunoassay (Annamalai et al 2020;Arun Krishnan et al 2020;. The precise strategy used in the IAT for detection of SARS-CoV-2 approved by the China NMPA is not available, as it is a business secret, and the efficiency must be further validated.…”

“…These three categories of detection kits play complementary roles in the management of the COVID-19 pandemic. SARS-CoV-2 viral RNA and antigens can be identified in SARS-CoV-2-infected individuals during the acute phase of infection, while serological tests subsequently identify individuals who have developed antibodies to the virus, which can be used for close contact tracing and monitoring of the immune status of individuals and groups over time (Arun Krishnan et al 2020;Hu et al 2020;James and Alwneh 2020;Meo et al 2020;Oliveira et al 2020;Priyadarshi et al 2020;Shen et al 2020;Xu T et al 2020).…”

The Perspective on Bio-Nano Interface Technology for Covid-19

“…This method is focused on direct amplification of the virus genetic material from the patient sample that offers high sensitivity (85-90%) and specificity with the aid of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) under the thermal cycler. Two strategies are used in a PCR test, (a) Reverse Transcriptase-PCR (quantitative) (b) Loop-Mediated Isothermal Amplification-PCR (LAMP-PCR) (qualitative) (Arun Krishnan et al, 2020). The RT-PCR method involves the reverse transcription of Covid-19 RNA into cDNA (Complementary DNA) strands, later by amplification of the specific gene of interest in the cDNA (Kageyama et al, 2003).…”