ABSTRACT
The SARS-Cov-2 pandemic has forced all countries worldwide to rapidly develop and implement widespread testing to control and manage the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). RT-qPCR is the gold standard molecular diagnostic method for COVID-19, mostly in automated testing platforms. These systems are accurate and effective, but also costly, time-consuming, high technological, infrastructure dependent and currently suffer from commercial reagent supply shortages. The reverse-transcription loop-mediated isothermal amplification (RT-LAMP) can be used as alternative testing method. Here, we present a novel versatile (real-time and colorimetric) RT-LAMP for the simple (one-step) and rapid (as soon as 9 min) detection of SARS-CoV-2 and demonstrate the assay on RT-qPCR-positive clinical samples. We further transformed the RT-LAMP into a dry format for room-temperature storage suitable for potentially ready-to-use COVID-19 diagnosis. After further testing and validation, the Dry-RT-LAMP could be easily applied both in developed and in low-income countries yielding rapid and reliable results.