Researchers, including one of Indian origin, have developed a new smartphone-controlled, battery-operated diagnostic device that costs just $100 and can detect Zika, dengue and chikungunya within 30 minutes.
Testing for these mosquito-borne viruses currently requires a laboratory and patients have to wait days for results.
The tests require instruments that are roughly the size of a microwave oven and can cost up to $20,000. This makes rapid testing unrealistic for limited-resource clinics in developing countries where the viruses are prevalent.
Aashish Priye from Sandia National Laboratories in the US said:
The device is based on the loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) diagnostic method, which eliminates the need to process a biological sample, such as blood or urine, before testing.
Conventional viral testing involves transporting a sample to a laboratory, extracting DNA or RNA from it and then multiplying the genetic materials through a process called polymerase chain reaction (PCR).
Like PCR, LAMP copies viral DNA/RNA, but without the heating and cooling cycle, a heavy-duty power source is not needed.
“We’ve demonstrated that the chemistry we’re using can amplify viral RNA directly from raw, unprocessed samples” said Robert Meagher, Sandia chemical engineer and project lead.
This smartphone-based image analysis offers much greater detection certainty than the lab technician's naked eye.
Zika virus has been linked to severe fetal abnormalities, including microcephaly and congenital blindness, as well as neurological disorders that can strike people at any age.
Zika, dengue and chikungunya are spread by the same mosquito type and have similar early symptoms.
Sandia's prototype diagnostic tool could enable care providers to test quickly for all three at the same time, preventing misdiagnoses. The same tool can also be adapted to detect other human or animal pathogens, researchers said.
The research was published in the journal Scientific Reports.
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