A SARS-CoV-2 Antigen Rapid Diagnostic Test for Resource Limited Settings

Abstract

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is the causative agent of COVID-19 disease. RT-qPCR has been the primary method of diagnosis; however, the required infrastructure is lacking in many developing countries and the virus has remained a global challenge. More inexpensive and immediate test methods are required to facilitate local, regional, and national management strategies to re-open world economies. Here we have developed a SARS-CoV-2 antigen test in an inexpensive lateral flow format to generate a chromatographic result identifying the presence of the SARS-CoV-2 antigen, and thus an active infection, within a patient anterior nares swab sample. Our 15-minute test requires no equipment or laboratory infrastructure to administer with a limit of detection of 2.0 x 102 TCID50/mL and 87.5% sensitivity, 100% specificity when tested against 40 known positive and 40 known negative patient samples established by a validated RT-qPCR test.

Engineering gold nanoparticles for molecular diagnostics and biosensing

“…Perhaps the most relevant and well know feature is their striking optical properties, derived from the localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR), attributing to AuNPs of 20 nm in diameter a strong red color, which have been used in a wide range of simple colorimetric diagnostic devices. For example, in the current COVID‐19 pandemic—the red line in the lateral flow tests for rapid SARS‐CoV‐2 antigen detection, indicating either a positive sample and/or a positive result, arise from the intense red color of AuNPs that does not bleach (Aoki et al, 2021; Frew et al, 2021; Kevadiya et al, 2021; Box 1).…”