Indian scientists develop better technique to detect Covid-19

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A team of Indian scientists has developed a new technology platform for fluorometric detection of SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) that is more reliable than the existing techniques, according to information provided by the Ministry of Science and Technology. </p>
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The technology platform detects viruses by measuring the fluorescent light that is emitted and can also be used to detect other DNA/RNA pathogens such as HIV, influenza, HCV, Zika, Ebola, bacteria, and other mutating pathogens.</p>
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Scientists from Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, an autonomous institute of the government, along with scientists from IISc (India Institute of Science), have demonstrated a noncanonical nucleic acid-based G-quadruplex (GQ) topology targeted reliable conformational polymorphism (GQ-RCP) platform to diagnose Covid-19 clinical samples.</p>
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This work has been published recently in the journal ‘ACS Sensors’ and the team has also filed a patent for the novel technology.</p>
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The platform lays greater emphasis on deciphering and systematic characterization of a unique set of interactions in nucleic acids to attain stable and reliable noncanonical DNA/RNA targets.</p>
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RT-q-PCR has been the gold standard for accurate detection of Covid-19. Among the recent innovations on nucleic acid-targeted diagnosis of Covid-19, the techniques such as RT RPA and RT-LAMP use general-purpose DNA sensing probes. This increases the propensity of false-positive results arising out of unbiased detection of nonspecific amplification products.</p>
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Recognizing unique DNA secondary conformations can be a promising solution to achieve reliable readouts. The team has identified and characterized a unique G-quadruplex-based target derived from the 30 kb (kilobytes) genomic landscape for specific detection of SARS-CoV-2.</p>
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Unlike the other reliable diagnostic assays where the existing fundamental concepts have been repurposed, this work presents a completely novel strategy to target a unique, unconventional structure specific to Covid-19 the sequence using small molecule fluorophores (microscopic molecules).</p>
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<strong>Publication link:</strong>  <a href="https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acssensors.1c02113">https://doi.org/10.1021/acssensors.1c02113</a></p>
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<strong>For more details, please contact T Govindaraju</strong> (<a href="http://tgraju@jncasr.ac.in">tgraju@jncasr.ac.in</a>, <a href="http://tgraju.jnc@gmail.com">tgraju.jnc@gmail.com</a>).</p>