SARS-CoV-2 On-the-Spot Virus Detection Directly From Patients

Ben-Assa, N.; Naddaf, R.; Gefen, T.; Capucha, T.; Hajjo, H.; Mandelbaum, N.; Elbaum, L.; Rogov, P.; King, D. A.; Kaplan, S.; Rotem, A.; Chowers, M.; Szwarcwort-Cohen, M.; Paul, M.; Geva-Zatorsky, N.

Many countries are currently in a lockdown state due to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. One key aspect to transition safely out of lockdown is to continuously test the population for infected subjects. Currently, detection is performed at points of care using quantitative reverse-transcription PCR (RT-qPCR) and requires dedicated professionals and equipment. Here, we developed a protocol based on Reverse Transcribed Loop-Mediated Isothermal Amplification (RT-LAMP) for detection of SARS-CoV-2, directly from crude nose and throat swabs. We applied this protocol to over 180 suspected patients, and determined its specificity and sensitivity by comparison to their RT-qPCR results. In addition, we further succeeded to apply the protocol on self-sampled saliva from confirmed cases. Since the proposed protocol provides results on-the-spot, and can detect SARS-CoV-2 from saliva, it can allow simple and continuous surveillance of the community.