In the light of the current global situation, a new inexpensive rapid test for Covid-19 has been conceptually developed and the details are outlined in this document. Given the lack of approved vaccines and anti-viral drugs, the importance of quick diagnoses cannot be understated. Research suggest that antigen material should be readily available in serological samples from the onset until the end of infection. Hence, a direct antigen rapid test, such as the one to be presented here, has the advantage of not being dependent on immune response and the availability of specific immunoglobulin antibodies. Diagnosis should therefore be possible from the first day of symptoms. This is very significant and means that acute diagnosis is theoretically possible.
The coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19), a nightmare of this century, has become an ongoing global health emergency for the entire world. This dreadful disease is believed to have originated from China and has now spread worldwide. To date, more than 170 million people have been found affected by this virus, namely “severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2” (SARS-CoV-2). With the exponential increase in the patients affected by the SARS-CoV-2, the need for testing has also increased tremendously. Early diagnosis is essential to prevent the extensive spread of the disease because of the faster rate of infection. In this regard, various diagnostic techniques are employed for the detection of the infection in symptomatic and asymptomatic COVID-19 individuals. To provide diagnostic care for the control of the disease, various tests like serological testing, nucleic acid amplification test (NAAT), rapid antigen-based testing, and paper-based testing have been developed and are presently in good use. The present mini-review is an attempt to outline the currently available diagnostic kits for the detection of the SARS-CoV-2 causing COVID-19.
AbstractSeasonal flu and pandemics, which account for millions of infections and hundreds of thousands of deaths, require rapid and reliable detection mechanisms for preventive and therapeutic measures. Current methods of viral detection have limitations in speed, accuracy, accessibility, and usability. This project presents a novel, widely applicable viral diagnosis that uses a modified version of the traditional rolling circle amplification (RCA) to be sensitive, specific, direct, colorimetric, and operable at room temperature. We are specifically aiming to detect SARS-CoV-2, Influenza A (H1N1pdm09), and Influenza B (Victoria Lineage). Results using synthetic viral DNA sequences show that the diagnostic test could take as fast as 30 minutes and detect up to picomolar concentrations of DNA strands. The next step for this project is to test the assay with synthetic viral RNA to verify the results. We envision that the implementation of this type of diagnostic test could allow faster responses to outbreaks of related viruses and quicker societal recovery.
A scientist has an h-index if h of his N publications are cited at least h times each, while the remaining (N - h) publications are cited no more than h times each.
For a given set of articles, sorted in descending order of the number of citations that these articles received, the g-index is the largest number such that the g most cited articles received (in total) at least g2 citations.
If w articles of a researcher have at least 10w citations each and other publications are less than 10(w+1) citations, then the researcher's w-index is equal to w.