They create in Brazil a genetic test to detect COVID-19 without false negatives



The Israelita Albert Einstein Hospital in Sao Paulo, one of the leading medical centers in Latin America, developed the world's first genetic test capable of detecting the new coronavirus using the New Generation Sequencing (NGS) technology without presenting false negatives.

This technology, popularly known by its English signs (NGS), consists of reading small DNA fragments to identify diseases or genetic mutations.

But the innovation developed by researchers at the Albert Einstein Hospital consisted of adapting this method to detect ribonucleic acid (RNA), the other biological molecule that, together with DNA, makes up the genetic material of all living things.

This is because, like other viruses, SARS-CoV-2 has only RNA.

"The virus has RNA and our research group was interested in knowing how a molecular test could be used in the context of this pandemic," Claudio Terra, director of Innovation and Digital Transformation at the Albert Einstein Hospital, told Efe.

Although the precision of the new test is "equivalent to that presented by the conventional method", it allows the simultaneous performance of up to 1,536 tests, that is, a processing volume 16 times greater.

According to pathologist Joao Renato Rebello Pinho, coordinator of the Einstein Special Techniques Laboratory, this new methodology allowed the hospital's laboratories to carry out some 150,000 exams in a 72-hour period, which represents an expressive increase compared to the capacity initial 2,000 daily tests.

"We concluded that developing a test using this technology would allow us to do a very large number of tests, which is what our country needs" to have greater control of the infection, Renato Rebello told Efe.

In this same sense, Terra expressed himself, who stressed that the importance of this novelty lies in the possibility of "dramatically increasing" the capacity of tests for the diagnosis of COVID-19 and doing it at a "more accessible" cost.

"We have a large technology park in Brazil and in the world of NGS equipment that is not being used in the fight against the coronavirus" because, until now, the mass tests for the detection of the pathogen have been serological tests, known as the quick tests.

TEST WITHOUT FALSE NEGATIVES

Traditional diagnostic tests detect antibodies produced by the body in response to infection, so they can only be observed, on average, 14 days after contamination.

This explains why rapid tests have an approximate rate of 30% of false negatives, a percentage that drops to 0% in the case of the new test devised by Einstein, which identifies the presence of the virus from the first day of infection.

MASS DIAGNOSIS

This new examination is presented as a "viable alternative to adopting mass diagnostic tests", an action considered "vital" to take the necessary measures of treatment, forecasting the demand for the health system and controlling the expansion of cases.

Brazil has already registered at least 291,579 cases and around 19,000 coronavirus deaths, although the numbers could be much higher due to high underreporting and the delay in carrying out the tests.

The first step in carrying out this examination consists of collecting samples, which pass through the "new generation sequencing devices" and the analysis is carried out using the Verstation bioinformatics platform, created by the Department of Innovation. hospital.

"The result is ready in three days, but we are already working to significantly reduce this period," said Murilo Cervato, CEO of Verstation.

The first validations demonstrated a 90% ability to correctly identify individuals who contracted COVID-19.

Now, according to Terra, this patented methodology "is already tested and validated", although the project will not be placed in the production routine until the beginning of June.

Later, having "great potential to be adopted on a large scale", the Albert Einstein Hospital intends to bring "this technology to the largest number of laboratories in the country and abroad".

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