A Review of Novel Methods for Diagnosing COVID-19

Abdukić, T.; Bego, T.; Meseldžić, N.; Planinić, M.; Pulo, E.; Šehić, F.

SARS-CoV-2 is part of a diverse family of viruses, which mainly affect the respiratory system, central nervous, hepatic, and gastrointestinal systems. The symptoms are fever, cough, shortness of breath, muscle pain, confusion, headache, sore throat, rhinorrhea, chest pain, diarrhea, and nausea and vomiting. The COVID-19 upheaval has certainly become the most significant issue around the world, and its results have left nobody immaculate. Rapid discoveries, especially in the terms of diagnosing COVID-19 can assist with controlling the infection spread just as additional flare-ups of this infectious diseases. Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) is a golden standard when it comes to diagnosing COVID-19 infection. Novel methods have been developed to overcome time-consuming problems including RT-LAMP and AI-LAMP. On the other hand, various antigen tests are being currently developed. One of the novel ones is the ultrasensitive antigen-based test for SARS-CoV-2 spike protein detection. Furthermore, the Panbio test detects nucleocapsid protein of SARS-CoV-2 in nasopharyngeal samples. Next, Field-Effect Transistor (FET) based biosensors are very attractive due to their high sensitivity and instant measurements with small amounts of needed analytes. Moreover, the peak of rapid testing is a device that can detect COVID-19 in exhaled breath, making it the fastest and easiest test to run. Up to this day, “Breathonix” and “Scentech Medical” companies alongside professor Niann Sun developed breath analyzers that are still in the testing phase. In this paper, we review novel methods for diagnosing COVID-19, including the RT-PCR. The advantages, as well as disadvantages of the mentioned methods, are included in this paper. Data on COVID-19 are evolving rapidly. Considering science and technology’s swift development, some of the specifics in this review could be changed as more studies become available. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.