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Scientists say they have created a new portable test that can detect the coronavirus within minutes and even identify if it is a highly infectious variant.
Developed by the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, Calif., The test is called NIRVANA (Nanopore Sequencing of Isothermal Rapid Viral Amplification for Near Real-Time Analysis).
The laptop-sized machine can diagnose COVID-19 in 15 minutes and, at the same time, check for other viruses with similar symptoms such as the flu.
It can also perform genetic sequencing in just three hours to determine if the virus is a mutation – like those first seen in the UK and South Africa – which could help public health experts determine at which speed the virus spreads.
The new test, called NIRVANA
It can diagnose COVID-19 in 15 minutes (left) and, at the same time, look for other viruses with similar symptoms like the flu (right)
“This is a method of virus detection and surveillance that does not require expensive infrastructure like other approaches,” said co-correspondent Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte, professor at the Salk Gene Expression Laboratory. , in a press release.
“We can accomplish with a portable test the same thing that others use two or three different tests, with different machines, to do.
Currently, the process of testing patients for COVID-19 involves a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test – considered the gold standard of testing – which looks for the genetic material of the virus.
If the test is negative, the patient will not know what is causing their symptoms unless other PCR tests are in progress for different viruses.
But if the test is positive, the patient does not know if the virus is one of the highly infectious variants unless it is sent to another lab, which can take days to return the results of genetic sequencing.
Plus, there are federal rules that dictate what information university labs can report and to whom, meaning health counties don’t even know which counties within states have cases.
Tests are only performed by certain laboratories which are not required to communicate their results to patients or physicians.
Researchers at the Salk Institute said they were wondering if there was a faster, cheaper and easier way to test for COVID-19.
They decided to use a technology called isothermal recombinase polymerase (RPA) amplification.
PCR tests alternate between high and low temperatures to separate DNA and locate viral genetic material, but RPA uses proteins to do the same and much faster.
“ We quickly realized that we could use this technique to detect not only SARS-CoV-2, but other viruses at the same time, ” said co-corresponding author Dr. Mo Li, assistant professor. of Biosciences at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia and former postdoctoral researcher Salk.
Li and Izpisua Belmonte designed NIRVANA to test for COVID-19 as well as influenza A, human adenovirus, and other coronaviruses.
They say the test will report positive or negative results in just 15 minutes. They add that within three hours the machine can reveal whether the ample is related to a variant, such as the UK variant, B.1.1.7, which is spreading to the United States.
To test their machine, with results published in the journal Med, the researchers had 70 samples analyzed by NIRVANA, including 10 known to be positive for COVID-19 and 60 of unknown status.
Either way, the machine correctly identified the viruses present and, if it was positive for the new coronavirus, the test narrowed it down to the correct strain.
Li and Izpisua Belmonte say the machine can test 96 samples at a time and, due to its small size, it could be used to detect the virus in schools or airports.
“The pandemic has provided two important lessons: first, test widely and quickly, and second, know your variants,” said Izpisua Belmonte.
“Our NIRVANA method offers a promising solution to both of these challenges not only for the current pandemic, but also for possible futures.
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