Rapid and simple detection of SARS-CoV-2 with point-of-care COVID-19 testing

Abstract

COVID-19 as a public health concern of the world has spread worldwide and a combination of vari-ous methods including tomography imaging, reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and cell culturing were developed to detect and identify SARS-CoV-2. Due to the absence of specific antiviral agents or vaccines for COVID-19 treat-ment, early detection and identification are vital. An alternative, sensitive, fast point-of-care (POC) detection tool that can be routinely used by health care providers utilizing biological fluids as a specimen before starting an emergency process is desired. Efforts are underway to develop more effective diagnostic and surveillance technologies with loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) tests, antibody testing and microfluidic RT-PCR devices (Lab-on-a-chip). Point-of-care diagnostics are promising candidates in SARS-Cov-2 detection and encourage scientists to improve their technologies beyond conception. The reverse transcription LAMP (RT-LAMP) method developed for SARS-CoV-2 could detect the virus even in saliva samples in less than an hour (Harapan et al., 2020). Lab-on-a-chip devices contain a small size chip, microchannel, microelectrodes and microheater. Cell ly-sis, DNA extraction and PCR amplification stages could be integrated on these microchips (Sharma et al., 2020). Because of the rapid detection, small volume of the specimen and integration with PCR in a portable tiny system, these devices are promising for SARS-CoV-2 detection (Huang et al., 2018). The validity and sensitivity of all the above-mentioned methods need to be improved for salivary specimen usage; in case of improvement, they might provide an opportunity for salivary detection of the virus without a waiting period and complex analytical infrastructure.