Direct on-the-spot detection of SARS-CoV-2 in patients

  1. Nadav Ben-Assa
  2. Rawi Naddaf
  3. Tal Gefen
  4. Tal Capucha
  5. Haitham Hajjo
  6. Noa Mandelbaum
  7. Lilach Elbaum
  8. Peter Rogov
  9. Daniel A King
  10. Shai Kaplan
  11. Assaf Rotem
  12. Michal Chowers
  13. Moran Szwarcwort-Cohen
  14. Mical Paul
  15. Naama Geva-Zatorsky

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Abstract

Many countries are currently in a state of lockdown due to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. One key requirement to safely transition out of lockdown is the continuous testing of the population to identify infected subjects. Currently, detection is performed at points of care using quantitative reverse-transcription PCR, thus requiring dedicated professionals and equipment. Here, we developed a protocol based on reverse transcribed loop-mediated isothermal amplification for the detection of SARS-CoV-2. This protocol is applied directly to SARS-CoV-2 nose and throat swabs, with no RNA purification step required. We tested this protocol on over 180 suspected patients, and compared the results to those obtained using the standard method. We further succeeded in applying the protocol to self-collected saliva samples from confirmed cases. Since the proposed protocol can detect SARS-CoV-2 from saliva and provides on-the-spot results, it allows simple and continuous surveillance of the community.

Humanity is currently experiencing a global pandemic with devastating implications on human health and the economy. Most countries are gradually exiting their lockdown state. We are currently lacking rapid and simple viral detections, especially methods that can be performed in the household. Here, we applied RT-LAMP directly on human clinical swabs and self-collected saliva samples. We adjusted the method to allow simple and rapid viral detection, with no RNA purification steps. By testing our method on over 180 human samples, we determined its sensitivity, and by applying it to other viruses, we determined its specificity. We believe this method has a promising potential to be applied world-wide as a simple and cheap surveillance test for SARS-CoV-2.

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  1. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2020.04.22.20072389: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    Institutional Review Board Statementnot detected.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    No key resources detected.

    Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).

    Results from LimitationRecognizer: An explicit section about the limitations of the techniques employed in this study was not found. We encourage authors to address study limitations.

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.

    Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.

    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.

    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

    About SciScore

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  2. Version published to 10.1177/1535370220941819
  3. Version published to 10.1101/2020.04.22.20072389v2 on medRxiv
  4. Version published to 10.1101/2020.04.22.20072389v1 on medRxiv