Table 1.
Molecular approaches for diagnosing viral infections, the target molecule, underlying detection mechanism, amplified product, screened viral infection, commercialization platforms and salient operational aspects are listed.
| Diagnostic test/assay with conduct time | Information revealed/implicit requirements and merits | Major limitations | Manufacturer’s specification (United States) |
|---|---|---|---|
| rRT-PCR/completes in 2 hours | Detection of viral RNA in the serum, rapid and confirmatory screening pf live infection, mandates mRNA to dDNA conversion and finally dDNA amplification | May be false negative with low viral load or in early stages of infection | Lab Corp., Abbott Molecular Inc. |
| SHERLOCK/completes in one hour | Detects active infection, Exploits CRISPR (bacterial immune system) to screen viral nuc | Begins with RNA/cDNA harvested from patient’s sample | Sherlock Biosciences |
| Rapid Diagnostic Test (RDT)/completes within half an hour | Rapid detection of host Abs generated on previous viral exposure, overcomes costly PCR conditioning by isothermal working | Non-quantitative assay, error prone in terms of specificity, may not be exclusive for SARS-CoV2 | Luminex Molecular Diagnostics, Inc. |
| Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA)/completes within (2–5) hours | Quantitative/qualitative estimation of specific Ab titer, higher specificity conferred via enzyme linkages | No assurance about specific Ag-Ab interaction | Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc. |
| Neutralization/completes in (3–5) days | Ascertains neutralizing Abs in patient serum, instrumental in preventive enhancement of viral population | Long duration and an escapism of antibodies that are not against viral replication | Bioreference, Quest Diagnostics Infectious Diseases Inc. |
| Chemiluminescent immunoassay/completes in (1–2) hours | High specificity and reagent stability, low cost method with less reagent consumption, reduced incubation time | Restricted Ag detection, high operative costs, may be inaccessible for catering the need of increasing CoVID2 sufferers | Cellex, Inc. |
CRISPR, Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats; SARS-CoV2, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2; SHERLOCK, specific high-sensitivity enzymatic reporter unlocking; Ab, antibody; Abs, antibodies; Ag, antigen; Ag-Ab, antigen-antibody.