Sayak Banerjee, Amity University Kolkata
COVID-19 has already taken over 4 million lives around the world, hence testing is essential for understanding the virus and controlling its spread. Currently, the tests are restricted by two factors, time taken and the accuracy required for analyzing a sample. The third factor which poses a challenge towards the present COVID-19 testing is cost. Most of the tests that have been developed to date are expensive to produce and necessitate trained workers for administering and analyzing the tests. This factor is the sole reason for which testing has become highly inaccessible in low and middle-income communities. Consequently, individuals remain at a greater risk of being susceptible to viral transmission.
To date, the tests are not sufficiently rapid, low-cost, or scalable to allow for broad COVID-19 testing. Researchers from The University of Pennsylvania have developed a novel electrochemical test using graphite electrodes. The lead researcher was César de la Fuente, Assistant Professor in Bioengineering and Microbiology. He had mentioned that this test takes only 6.5 minutes to produce 100% accurate results from oropharyngeal and nasopharyngeal samples. Moreover, these electrodes cut the cost to $1.50 per test, thus addressing time, expense, and accuracy.
The LEAD COVID-19 testing kit:
de la Fuente had focused on the invention of RAPID (Real-time Accurate Portable Impedimetric Detection) before this research. It is a COVID-19 testing kit that makes use of screen-printed electrodes. In his new research published in PNAS, he has presented LEAD (Low-cost Electrochemical Advanced Diagnostic) employing the same concept rather than without costly equipment. By altering just the building material of the electrodes, the cost has declined from $4.67 per test (RAPID) to $1.50 per test (LEAD).
The majority of the commercially available rapid tests is generally antigen-based and show low sensitivity. This drawback restricts its potential to precisely determine the asymptomatic individuals, thereby inhibiting the proper regulation of viral spread. LEAD, the COVID-19 testing kit that the researchers had reported about, utilizes highly accessible inexpensive materials. The robustness and accuracy of LEAD were assessed by analyzing 113 clinical samples especially the infectious SARS-CoV-2 UK variant.
The lead researcher had confirmed that both RAPID and LEAD function on the same principle of electrochemistry. Nevertheless, LEAD is easier to assemble than RAPID because anyone can use it. Its high accessibility comes from the usage of the abundant material graphite that is even present in pencils. The functioning of LEAD is exhibited over a graph where when the sample is positive the COVID-19 spike protein binds to the electrode. This prevents the emission of a signal thus resulting in a small peak or else LEAD always produces a high peak.
Significance of LEAD
The Penn researchers are still working to enhance their tests’ stability and technology to produce an effective version of LEAD. More and more clinical studies are being performed to bring LEAD to be used as a COVID-19 testing kit shortly. de la Fuente regarded their test design to be multiplexing, enabling the detection of multiple bacteria and viruses in a sample. LEAD’s time and cost efficiency might make it the first electrochemical COVID-19 test in the future markets thriving indefinitely.
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Reference:
- Lima, L. F. de, Ferreira, A. L., Torres, M. D. T., Araujo, W. R. de, & Fuente-Nunez, C. de la. (2021). Minute-scale detection of SARS-CoV-2 using a low-cost biosensor composed of pencil graphite electrodes. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 118(30). https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2106724118
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Author info:
Sayak Banerjee is a 3rd year Biotechnology Engineering Student with great interest in Immunology and Molecular genetics. He is a creative scientific writer in Bioxone with an inclination towards gaining knowledge regarding vast sections of Biotechnology and emphasizing himself in various wet lab skills.
Publications:
- https://bioxone.in/news/worldnews/car-t-cells-scientists-discover-on-off-switches-for-cell-immunotherapy/
- https://bioxone.in/news/worldnews/neutrophil-derived-nanovesicles-a-novel-drug-delivery-system/
- https://bioxone.in/news/worldnews/pig-to-human-heart-transplantation-a-solution-to-the-rarity-of-donor-organs/
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