COVID-19 Infection Diagnosis: Potential Impact of Isothermal Amplification Technology to Reduce Community Transmission of SARS-CoV-2

Abstract

The current coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is largely driven by community transmission, after 2019 novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV or SARS-CoV-2) crosses the borders. To stop the spread, rapid testing is required at community clinics and hospitals. These rapid tests should be comparable with the standard PCR technology. Isothermal amplification technology provides an excellent alternative that is highly amenable to resource limited settings, where expertise and infrastructure to support PCR are not available. In this review, we provide a brief description of isothermal amplification technology, its potential and the gaps that need to be considered for SARS-CoV-2 detection. Among this emerging technology, loop-mediated amplification (LAMP), recombinase polymerase amplification (RPA) and Nicking enzyme-assisted reaction (NEAR) technologies have been identified as potential platforms that could be implemented at community level, without samples referral to a centralized laboratory and prolonged turnaround time associated with the standard COVID-19 RT-PCR test. LAMP, for example, has recently been shown to be comparable with PCR and could be performed in less than 30 min by non-laboratory staff, without RNA extractions commonly associated with PCR. Interestingly, NEAR (ID NOW™ COVID-19 (Abbott, IL, USA) was able to detect the virus in 5 min. More so, isothermal platforms are cost effective and could easily be scaled up to resource limited settings. Diagnostics developers, scientific community and commercial companies could consider this alternative method to help stop the spread of COVID-19.

Development of a tablet PC-based portable device for colorimetric determination of assays including COVID-19 and other pathogenic microorganisms

“…It also has negatively impacted the world economy. 1 On January 30, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 as a global public health emergency. 2 COVID-19 is characterized with high morbidity and low mortality therefore representing a great threat, particularly to immunocompromised, elderly people, and individuals with preexisting health problems.…”

“…Having an appropriate point of care device is crucial and urgently needed for the fast detection of COVID-19. 1,[4][5][6][7][8] As the growing number of suspected COVID-19 cases exceeds the capacity of many hospitals, many patients remain untested, impeding efforts to control the disease. A rapid, point-of-care (POC) diagnostic for the COVID-19, which we will propose, using a loop-mediated isothermal amplication (LAMP) method of detection can be of great use.…”

Rapid, sensitive and specific SARS coronavirus-2 detection: a multi-center comparison between standard qRT-PCR and CRISPR based DETECTR

“…This technology is termed DNA Endonuclease-Targeted CRISPR Trans Reporter (DETECTR). The single strand DNA nuclease activity of Cas12 can generate a high-throughput SARS-CoV-2 point-of-care test (POCT) without aspecific amplification as observed with RT-LAMP using intercalating fluorescent dyes or turbidity readouts (5,7), review see (8,9). Since DETECTR depends on both signal amplification by RT-LAMP and reporter degradation after Cas12-dependent amplicon recognition, the assay produces a binary readout and is potentially more sensitive and specific compared to qRT-PCR (5,6).…”

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

“…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).…”