Point-of-care diagnosis of COVID-19 disease based on antigen tests

Abstract

AIMS: This review is focused on the laboratory diagnoses of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) by recognizing the antigen of the causative agent SARS-CoV-2 virus. Various antigen tests are available in this moment and these tests are being further developed in order to reach a better diagnostic value. The issue is reviewed in a complex view. METHODS: In this work, a complex survey of the current literature was made. The relevant and recent papers related to antigen tests of COVID-19 are discussed and cited. Basic specifi cations of the antigen tests and competitive methods were also scrutinized in the current literature. RESULTS: The survey of the current literature (years 2019 -2021) was made and diagnostic methods like lateral fl ow tests (lateral fl ow immunochromatographic assay) and various types of biosensors were specifi ed as tools for COVID-19 diagnosis and their application to be used as a point-of-care test is considered. CONCLUSIONS: Small hand-held assays applicable in the point-of-care conditions for diagnosis of COVID-19 by analysis of SARS-CoV-2 antigen are the means of a growing interest and these means undergo a signifi cant development leading to the improvements of their specifi cations and applicability to the current praxis. Merit of the assays is discussed in this paper (Tab. 3, Fig. 2, Ref. 109).

Immunosensors for Assay of Toxic Biological Warfare Agents

“…The standard methods should verify results from the immunosensor when the situation allows. The role of an immunosensor in the toxic biological warfare agent assay can be compared with point-of-care tests based on lateral flow immunochromatography that were found to be useful during the Coronavirus 2019 pandmic, and that were taken as a less expensive, accessible, but less accurate diagnostic alternative to the standard polymerase chain reaction assays [ 68 , 69 , 70 , 71 , 72 , 73 ].…”

Progress in Biosensors for the Point-of-Care Diagnosis of COVID-19

“…Gargles and mouth wash are also suitable for sampling [ 78 ]. Membrane proteins (M), envelope proteins (E), spike proteins (S) and nucleocapsid proteins (N) and single-stranded positive-sense RNA with specific genes for the aforementioned proteins are the most important structures to analyze [ 79 , 80 ]. Biosensors and assays for direct detection of SARS-CoV-2 virions or its determinant structures should be highly sensitive because the concentration of typical markers is low.…”