The risk posed by COVID19 to human health has created the need for the development of appropriate diagnostic aids. Tremendous efforts are being put into diagnostic research of COVID19. The significance of saliva-based diagnosis for COVID19 is increasing day by day.
The Significance of Saliva-based Diagnosis For COVID19
is increasing day by day
Guanhua Xun and team from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign reported a new Scalable and Portable Testing (SPOT) system for COVID19 diagnosis using saliva samples.
The SPOT assay uses of Reverse Transcriptase – Loop-Mediated Isothermal Amplification (RT-LAMP) technique, followed by PfAgo-based target sequence detection.
PfAgo is the RNA silencing protein of archaea Pyrococcus furiosus.
This PfAgo can cleave the target DNA. The SPOT device detects the most frequently tested target genes of SARS-CoV-2, N, and E genes in SARS-CoV-2 virus-spiked saliva samples within 30 min.
The SPOT device is rapid, accurate, hand-held, portable, and battery-powered. This saliva-based technique gives quick results and can be used where urgent COVID19 diagnosis is required.
