ABSTRACT
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus2 (SARS-CoV-2) belongs to the beta corona virus genera of the Coronaviridae family, which is a pathogenic virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and is responsible for the ongoing pandemic affecting more than 210 countries. The virus has currently posed a global threat to the human population and demands the urgent need for sensitive and effective methods of diagnosis. Real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) is currently used as a gold standard technique for detecting and quantifying the transcript of viral ribonucleic acid. Yet many factors are essential for successful COVID-19 diagnosis, including sample sources, amount of viral load, isolation of ribonucleic acid, and the selection of the molecular targets. Although broncho alveolar lavage fluid (BALF) and sputum sample contain a high viral load with a high diagnostic value, they cannot be collected from mild to asymptomatic cases, therefore nasopharyngeal swab is considered better and is collected in all cases that contain a viral load significantly, whereas the use of blood and faecal specimens needs further examination with respect to systemic infection and viral shedding. Furthermore, rapid diagnostic test, clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)-based testing, chest computerized tomography (CT) scans, matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry (MALDI-MS), reverse transcriptional loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP), point of care (POC) testing and genexpert recently tool may help with COVID-19 diagnosis. In this review, we focus on diagnostic approaches for effective detection of SARS-CoV-2 infection. © 2020, Editorial board of Journal of Experimental Biology and Agricultural Sciences. All rights reserved.