ABSTRACT
Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) invented by Kary Mullis (1983), has become the centrepiece of molecular detection of various infectious diseases including coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Many developing countries like Nepal faces various challenges and grab many future opportunities during and after establishment of molecular PCR laboratories throughout the country. This viewpoint describes the involvement of laboratory employees, development and adoption of new protocols or framework, deliberate partnership with national and international community is very efficient for the establishment of PCR laboratories. Beside this, continued alliance and nation leadership is crucial to generate a unified and sustainable PCR laboratory network in the country like Nepal. In future the established PCR laboratories can be utilized for the diagnosis of others pandemic diseases and can be used for multipurpose like in verification of infectious diseases;Oncology;Blood test;Genetic testing. Copyright © 2020, Kathmandu University. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) invented by Kary Mullis (1983), has become the centrepiece of molecular detection of various infectious diseases including coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Many developing countries like Nepal faces various challenges and grab many future opportunities during and after establishment of molecular PCR laboratories throughout the country. This viewpoint describes the involvement of laboratory employees, development and adoption of new protocols or framework, deliberate partnership with national and international community is very efficient for the establishment of PCR laboratories. Beside this, continued alliance and nation leadership is crucial to generate a unified and sustainable PCR laboratory network in the country like Nepal. In future the established PCR laboratories can be utilized for the diagnosis of others pandemic diseases and can be used for multipurpose like in verification of infectious diseases;Oncology;Blood test;Genetic testing. © 2020, Kathmandu University. All rights reserved.
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.