A SARS-CoV-2 antigen rapid diagnostic test for resource limited settings

Abstract Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is the causative agent of COVID-19 disease. RT-qPCR has been the primary method of diagnosis; however, the required infrastructure is lacking in many developing countries and the virus has remained a global challenge. More inexpen...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Erica Frew, Douglas Roberts, Shelly Barry, Matthew Holden, Amanda Restell Mand, Emily Mitsock, Enqing Tan, Wei Yu, Johan Skog
Format: article
Language:EN
Published: Nature Portfolio 2021
Subjects:
R
Q
Online Access:https://doaj.org/article/5bca0fb6db4f425babdb323db478f1a8
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Summary:Abstract Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is the causative agent of COVID-19 disease. RT-qPCR has been the primary method of diagnosis; however, the required infrastructure is lacking in many developing countries and the virus has remained a global challenge. More inexpensive and immediate test methods are required to facilitate local, regional, and national management strategies to re-open world economies. Here we have developed a SARS-CoV-2 antigen test in an inexpensive lateral flow format to generate a chromatographic result identifying the presence of the SARS-CoV-2 antigen, and thus an active infection, within a patient anterior nares swab sample. Our 15-min test requires no equipment or laboratory infrastructure to administer with a limit of detection of 2.0 × 102 TCID50/mL and 87.5% sensitivity, 100% specificity when tested against 40 known positive and 40 known negative patient samples established by a validated RT-qPCR test.