mangalore today
name
name
name
Friday, March 29
Genesis Engineersnamename

 

New Covid-19 variants can now be detected in 1 hour, CSIR’s Feluda team develops RAY


Mangalore Today News Network

New Delhi, Feb 05, 2021:    Around the time the world was getting ready for the Covid-19 vaccines last year, new variants of SARS-CoV-2 emerged as fresh headache. One particular variant, having mutation N501Y first identified in the UK, has been a cause of concern for the health authorities across the world.

 

coronavirus


The new coronavirus variant is detected through genome sequencing of the virus present in the samples collected from Covid-19 patients and suspects. It takes up to two days (36-48 hours). Now, Indian scientists have developed a test that detects the coronavirus variants within an hour.

It has been developed by the same team of the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) that developed Feluda test for Covid-19 diagnosis. It is called RAY (Rapid variant AssaY) — another Covid-19 test paying homage to legendary Bengali filmmaker Satyajit Ray. Feluda — a paper-based Covid-19 test named after Ray’s fictional detective — was earlier named after the filmmaker.

The new coronavirus variant is considered more infectious than the previous strains. To prevent its spread to India, the government suspended flight operations from the UK.

In January, a consortium of genome sequencing labs was set up to keep a tab on the new variant that was reported from about two dozen countries. Samples are collected from travellers and these labs carry out genome sequencing to check for any mutation.

Genome sequencing is a lengthy scientific process requiring multiple machine-systems making isolating genome of all the samples collected by the health authorities within a limited time span almost impossible. The CSIR’s RAY test thus can be a game-changer in detecting the new variant and establish the extent of its spread.

Like Feluda, RAY is also a paper strip-based test that relies on a protein called Cas-9. It recognises and hooks to a particular segment of the viral genome of the variant. In case of a mismatch, it would not bind to the viral genome making it a negative result.

Another advantage of RAY test is that it can be modified to identify any future variant of the SARS-CoV-2 if need arises. All the viruses mutate frequently, and scientists expects SARS-CoV-2 to follow the same pattern in future.

“Our design principle can be rapidly adapted for other mutations, highlighting the advantages of quick optimization and rollout of CRISPR diagnostics (CRISPRDx) for disease surveillance even beyond Covid-19,” the researchers said in a paper published earlier this week and was yet to be peer-reviewed.

The existing genome sequencing technique requires high viral load for accurate detection of the new variant of coronavirus. The RAY test developed by the CSIR team has an advantage here.

The researchers said the RAY pipeline uses amplification step and “can detect samples across all ranges of Ct [cycle threshold] values”. The main advantage of sequencing COVID-19 samples is the generation of cumulative information about all mutations co-existing in a given variant, they said.


Courtesy:India Today


Write Comment | E-Mail To a Friend | Facebook | Twitter | Print
Error:NULL
Write your Comments on this Article
Your Name
Native Place / Place of Residence
Your E-mail
Your Comment
You have characters left.
Security Validation
Enter the characters in the image above