A Safer, Cheaper & Faster SARS-CoV-2 or coronavirus testing method, if approved, can scale up testing capacity by three-fold immediately, says Dr Rakesh Mishra, director of CSIR-CCMB (Council of Scientific and Industrial Research-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology).
Current methods of RT-qPCR (Real-time polymerase quantitative chain reaction) testing are done in the form of swabs from samples received in Viral Transport Medium (VTM) followed by RNA extraction and RT-qPCR. Now, CSIR-CCMB (Council of Scientific and Industrial Research-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology) has generated a simplified protocol for this test where dry swabs are collected and directly used for RT-qPCR. This method has been established to have no loss of sensitivity and is at par with the current gold standard of testing.
Given this simplification, the method becomes safer as there is no liquid sample handling and leakage and fear of contamination for the persons handling the sample in BSL-3 (Biosafety Level) facilities, says Dr Rakesh Mishra, director of CSIR-CCMB (Council of Scientific and Industrial Research-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology).
“It is also faster by about 5 hours as there is no RNA extraction and VTM containing tube handling. Further, it is cheaper too as there is no RNA extraction and no VTM, correspondingly less manpower is needed,” he said.
In addition to this, the major bottleneck in testing today is the process of RNA extraction, because of time and manpower constraints, said Dr Mishra. Removal of this step can improve the capacity of testing by about threefold, without any additional inputs.