Development of a Novel Colorimetric Assay for the Rapid Diagnosis of Coronavirus Disease 2019 From Nasopharyngeal Samples Publisher Pubmed



Sepahi N¹ ; Samsami S² ; Mansoori Y¹ ; Chenari M³ ; Namavari N⁴ ; Yazdanpanah A² ; Ghasemian A¹ ; Montaseri Z⁵ ; Sharifzadeh M¹ ; Ranjbar R¹ ; Namavari S⁶ ; Ghanbariasad A⁶ Show Affiliations
Source: Scientific Reports Published:2024

Abstract

Emergence of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has posed a huge threat to public health. Rapid and reliable test to diagnose infected subjects is crucial for disease spread control. We developed a colorimetric test for COVID-19 detection using a Colorimetric Assay based on thiol-linked RNA modified gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) and oligonucleotide probes. This method was conducted on RNA from 200 pharyngeal swab samples initially tested by Real-Time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) as gold standard. A specific oligonucleotide probe designed based on ORF1ab of COVID-19 was functionalized with AuNPs-probe conjugate. The exposure of AuNP-probe to isolated RNA samples was tested using hybridization. In this comparative study, the colorimetric functionalized AuNPs assay exhibited a detection limit of 25 copies/µL. It was higher in comparison to the RT-PCR method, which could only detect 15 copies/µL. The results demonstrated 100% specificity and 96% sensitivity for the developed method. Herein, we developed an incredibly rapid, simple and cost-effective Colorimetric Assay lasting approximately 30 min which could process considerably higher number of COVID-19 samples compared to the RT-PCR. This AuNP-probe conjugate colorimetric method could be considered the optimum alternatives for conventional diagnostic tools especially in over-populated and/or low-income countries. © The Author(s) 2024.