Mysuru varsity designs new rapid Covid detection kit

MYSURU: Close on the heels of false negative reports emerging while testing Covid-suspected patients, scientists from the University of Mysore have designed a kit to detect all the mutated variants rapidly. Revealing about this new design here on Monday, Prof KS Rangappa, distinguished professor and former vice-chancellor of the university, said that this new kit has been designed by scientists of the varsity in association with Lorven Biologics Pvt Ltd, Hyderabad.

Stating that existing rapid detection methods offered accuracy of detection from 60-90% and RT-PCR test was widely used as a confirmatory test during the first wave, he said it was unfortunate that up to 40% of the patients were diagnosed as Covid negative that is false negative. “So, the need of the hour was to have a new kit that can detect all the mutated variants of Covid rapidly. So, we have come out with this kit which will be able to detect the virus in the subsequent waves,” said Prof Rangappa, who headed the team. The scientists said the nucleoplasmic protein of coronavirus was cloned and expressed in a suitable system, thereafter antibodies are raised against nucleoplasmic protein.

Gold nanoparticle-based ICG strip was developed using purified antibodies for detection of Covid from suspected samples, they said. Prof Rangappa said the unique feature of the kit is that it is provided with a barcode stripe connected with an app. “As soon as the barcode is scanned, a patient’s health status, positive or negative, is updated in the server enabling the governing agency to monitor positive cases rapidly,” he said.

The scientists further said the kit is expected to be of low cost and will be sent to the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) for emergency approval. Prof Rangappa also revealed that they are also attempting to formulate a drug for Covid in association with the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT, Hyderabad) and Central Drug Research Institute (CDRI, Lucknow).

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