Handheld point-of-care system for rapid detection of SARS-CoV-2 extracted RNA in under 20 min
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic is a global health emergency characterized by the high rate of transmission and ongoing increase of cases globally. Rapid point-of-care (PoC) diagnostics to detect the causative virus, SARS-CoV-2, are urgently needed to identify and isolate patients, contain its spread and guide clinical management. In this work, we report the development of a rapid PoC diagnostic test (<20 min) based on reverse transcriptase loop-mediated isothermal amplification (RT-LAMP) and semiconductor technology for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 from extracted RNA samples. The developed LAMP assay was tested on a real-time benchtop instrument (RT-qLAMP) showing a lower limit of detection of 10 RNA copies per reaction. It was validated against extracted RNA from 183 clinical samples including 127 positive samples (screened by the CDC RT-qPCR assay). Results showed 91% sensitivity and 100% specificity when compared to RT-qPCR and average positive detection times of 15.45 ± 4.43 min. For validating the incorporation of the RT-LAMP assay onto our PoC platform (RT-eLAMP), a subset of samples was tested (n = 52), showing average detection times of 12.68 ± 2.56 min for positive samples (n = 34), demonstrating a comparable performance to a benchtop commercial instrument. Paired with a smartphone for results visualization and geolocalization, this portable diagnostic platform with secure cloud connectivity will enable real-time case identification and epidemiological surveillance.
Date Issued
2021-02-24
Date Acceptance
2020-11-18
Citation
ACS Central Science, 2021, 7 (2), pp.307-317
ISSN
2374-7943
Publisher
American Chemical Society (ACS)
Start Page
307
End Page
317
Journal / Book Title
ACS Central Science
Volume
7
Issue
2
Copyright Statement
© 2020 The Authors. Published by American Chemical Society. This is an open access article published under an ACS AuthorChoice License, which permits copying and redistribution of the article or any adaptations for non-commercial purposes.
Sponsor
Imperial College COVID-19 Research Fund
National Institute for Health Research
National Institute for Health Research
National Institute for Health Research
Grant Number
NF-SI-0617-10176
NIHR200646
NIHR200876
Subjects
03 Chemical Sciences
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
acscentsci.0c01288
Date Publish Online
2021-01-13