Updated: June 28, 2020 2:29:24 pm
According to the team, the project aims to develop a diagnostic serological assay based on ELISA (enzyme-linked immunoassay) against COVID-19. Photo credit: Bing Guan / Bloomberg
COVID-19 home test kits could soon become a reality with the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi and the National Laboratory of Chemistry (NCL) Pune working on an alternative test method that cannot only be performed by people at home but it will also deliver fast results.
The collaborative project with the NCL, which is under the auspices of the Scientific and Industrial Research Council (CSIR), also received financial support from Microsoft India and is expected to be ready in a month.
According to the team, the project aims to develop a diagnostic serological assay based on ELISA (enzyme-linked immunoassay) against COVID-19. If successful, you will create an inexpensive and commercial process to manufacture the antigens used in ELISA and home diagnostic kits to offer an effective, fast, robust, and affordable diagnostic solution to control the COVID-19 outbreak.
“Testing continues to be a challenge in managing COVID-19 and is likely to continue to be so in the years to come. Currently, real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) tests to detect genetic material to perform coronavirus tests. However, such tests can only be performed in laboratories, require several hours, have low specificity and sensitivity rates, and present risks related to sample collection and sample handling, “Anurag S Rathore, professor at the Department of IIT Chemical Engineering.
Furthermore, these tests cannot be performed by individuals at home. These risks can be minimized by developing IgG and IgM-based ELISA assays and home test kits, ”he added.
IgG is the most abundant immunoglobulin that is produced in response to an antigen and remains in the body after initial exposure for a long-term response. IgM is the first immunoglobulin that is produced in response to an antigen and is mainly detected during the early onset of the disease.
“Coronaviruses are made up of several proteins, including the spike (S), the envelope (E), the membrane (M) and the nucleocapsid (N). This trial we propose will use the microplate-based enzyme immunoassay technique, “said Rathore, who is also the dean of the institute, Corporate Relations.
“Technology for specific ELISA assay for coronavirus detection and robust and inexpensive expression systems for N and S protein antigen production can be transferred to national diagnostic centers and private companies specializing in home kit development or point-of-care devices, respectively, “he added.
While Rathore did not comment on the approximate cost of the test kit, he said, “It will be considerably cheaper than the tests being done now. However, we will have some concrete results within a month and we will only be able to analyze them at that time.”
IIT Delhi is the first academic institute in the country to receive the go-ahead from the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) for its COVID-19 test kit. The institute has granted a non-exclusive open license to the Bengaluru-based biotech company Genie Laboratories to market the test but priced at Rs 500 per kit.
The kits are manufactured at a facility in the Andhra Pradesh MedTech (AMTZ) area of Vishakhapatnam and are expected to be available on the market next month.
According to the team, the current test methods available are “probe-based,” while the one developed by the IIT team is a “probe-free” method, which reduces the cost of testing without compromising accuracy.
Using comparative sequence analysis, the IITD team identified unique regions (short stretches of RNA sequences) in the COVID-19 and SARS COV-2 genome.
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