Features Partner Sites Information LinkXpress hp
Sign In
Advertise with Us
LGC Clinical Diagnostics

Download Mobile App





New Technology Combines Speed of Rapid Antigen Test with Accuracy of PCR Testing to Detect COVID-19 in 4 Minutes

By LabMedica International staff writers
Posted on 10 Feb 2022
Print article
Illustration
Illustration

Scientists have developed a new coronavirus test that is accurate as a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) lab test but gives results within four minutes.

The test developed by researchers at Fudan University (Shanghai, China) uses a hypersensitive electromechanical biosensor to detect nucleic acids that were earlier difficult to identify owing to their low concentration in test samples. The sensor which uses microelectronics to analyze genetic material from swabs could reduce the need for time-consuming lab tests for diagnosing COVID-19.

PCR tests are the most accurate and sensitive for detecting SARS-COV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, although they can take several hours to deliver results. Rapid antigen tests are a quicker alternative and deliver results in 15 minutes but are less reliable than PCR tests which are more accurate due to their greater sensitivity. In comparison to PCR tests, antigen tests require a higher concentration of the virus to exhibit a positive result due to which they are more likely to show a false negative. Antigen tests look for pieces of virus-infected proteins, while PCR tests search for viral genetic material such as nucleic acids and RNA.

Currently, there is no technology that can properly detect COVID-infected nucleic acids and RNA without using extraction and amplification methods which require a lab environment. The new method that uses a hypersensitive electromechanical biosensor to detect nucleic acids offers speed, ease of operation, high sensitivity and portability. Portable tests based on this technology could be used for on-site COVID-19 testing at airports, clinics, emergency departments and at home, as well as for quickly diagnosing other types of diseases.

In a clinical trial of the new test, the researchers collected nasal samples from 33 PCR-positive COVID-19 patients, 23 PCR-negative patients, six influenza-positive patients and 25 healthy volunteers. The researchers found that the test accurately processed all the cases without any errors in less than four minutes. The trial was conducted on a small sample, and if the 100% accuracy rate was replicated in a larger test sample, then the new test could be a game changer in COVID-19 diagnosis.

"We implemented an electromechanical biosensor for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 into an integrated and portable prototype device, and show that it detected (virus RNA) in less than four minutes," the team said in a peer-reviewed article describing their molecular electromechanical system, or MolEMS, in the journal Nature Biomedical Engineering.

Related Links:
Fudan University 

Gold Member
SARS-CoV-2 Reactive & Non-Reactive Controls
Qnostics SARS-CoV-2 Typing
Verification Panels for Assay Development & QC
Seroconversion Panels
New
TORCH Infections Test
TORCH Panel
New
Immunoassays and Calibrators
QMS Tacrolimus Immunoassays

Print article

Channels

Clinical Chemistry

view channel
Image: The tiny clay-based materials can be customized for a range of medical applications (Photo courtesy of Angira Roy and Sam O’Keefe)

‘Brilliantly Luminous’ Nanoscale Chemical Tool to Improve Disease Detection

Thousands of commercially available glowing molecules known as fluorophores are commonly used in medical imaging, disease detection, biomarker tagging, and chemical analysis. They are also integral in... Read more

Immunology

view channel
Image: The cancer stem cell test can accurately choose more effective treatments (Photo courtesy of University of Cincinnati)

Stem Cell Test Predicts Treatment Outcome for Patients with Platinum-Resistant Ovarian Cancer

Epithelial ovarian cancer frequently responds to chemotherapy initially, but eventually, the tumor develops resistance to the therapy, leading to regrowth. This resistance is partially due to the activation... Read more

Microbiology

view channel
Image: The lab-in-tube assay could improve TB diagnoses in rural or resource-limited areas (Photo courtesy of Kenny Lass/Tulane University)

Handheld Device Delivers Low-Cost TB Results in Less Than One Hour

Tuberculosis (TB) remains the deadliest infectious disease globally, affecting an estimated 10 million people annually. In 2021, about 4.2 million TB cases went undiagnosed or unreported, mainly due to... Read more

Pathology

view channel
Image: The ready-to-use DUB enzyme assay kits accelerate routine DUB activity assays without compromising data quality (Photo courtesy of Adobe Stock)

Sensitive and Specific DUB Enzyme Assay Kits Require Minimal Setup Without Substrate Preparation

Ubiquitination and deubiquitination are two important physiological processes in the ubiquitin-proteasome system, responsible for protein degradation in cells. Deubiquitinating (DUB) enzymes contain around... Read more

Technology

view channel
Image: The HIV-1 self-testing chip will be capable of selectively detecting HIV in whole blood samples (Photo courtesy of Shutterstock)

Disposable Microchip Technology Could Selectively Detect HIV in Whole Blood Samples

As of the end of 2023, approximately 40 million people globally were living with HIV, and around 630,000 individuals died from AIDS-related illnesses that same year. Despite a substantial decline in deaths... Read more

Industry

view channel
Image: The collaboration aims to leverage Oxford Nanopore\'s sequencing platform and Cepheid\'s GeneXpert system to advance the field of sequencing for infectious diseases (Photo courtesy of Cepheid)

Cepheid and Oxford Nanopore Technologies Partner on Advancing Automated Sequencing-Based Solutions

Cepheid (Sunnyvale, CA, USA), a leading molecular diagnostics company, and Oxford Nanopore Technologies (Oxford, UK), the company behind a new generation of sequencing-based molecular analysis technologies,... Read more
Copyright © 2000-2025 Globetech Media. All rights reserved.