Written By: Longjam Dineshwori | Published : July 17, 2020 10:05 AM IST
Enzymatica claimed that spraying ColdZyme onto the mouth and throat could lower the risk of infection, and decrease the viral load locally.
Despite lockdown and other preventive measures like social distancing and isolation of patients, the number of coronavirus cases continues to rise in many countries, including India. While phase 6 of country-wide lockdown is still on, the number of coronavirus infections has crossed 9 lakh and nearly 25,000 people died due to the disease in India. As cases continue to increase at an alarming rate across the globe, infectious disease experts at John Hopkin's University have stressed the need for universal testing to identify the true burden of Covid-19 to enable better management.
With an aim to increase COVID-19 testing and speed up the process, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has approved the use of different methods, including RT-PCR, rapid antigen testing, and antibody test. These testing methods require the extraction of either nasal or throat swab samples or blood specimens, which is quite painful. Is there a non-invasive, painless way to test COVID-19 infection? Yes finally, and you just have to gargle to know if you're infected with COVID-19 or not.
Pharmacists at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) have developed a new test method that detects coronavirus from gargle samples. The new method measures the proteins of the virus, not the genetic material using mass spectrometry. Mass spectrometry allows molecules to be precisely identified based on their mass and charge. It might supplement conventional tests.
Professor Andrea Sinz, a mass spectrometry expert at the Institute of Pharmacy at MLU, believes that the new method can complement the current PCR (polymerase chain reaction) test.
For the experiments, the researchers used gargle solutions of three COVID-19 patients. Dr Christian Ihling, who carried out the tests, said that although they received only a small amount of gargle solution, they were able to detect components of proteins associated with SARS-CoV-2. The result came as quite surprising, and they hadn't expected it to really work according to Sinz.
The researchers noted that the test is highly specific for the virus since the corresponding proteins are only present in SARS-CoV-2. This testing method can be used in the early stages of the disease when many viruses are present in the mouth and throat, they said.
According to Sinz, the test currently takes about 15 minutes, but they trying to further reduce the analysis time using artificially produced virus components. For this, she is collaborating with a company. "Together with a company from Hesse, we are planning to use another mass spectrometric method that would enable us to perform measurements within seconds," Sinz said.
If that happens, the method would then be comparable to "biotyping," which is used by hospitals to diagnose bacterial or fungal infections.
With this novel testing method, sample preparation would no longer take time and even non-specialized persons would be able to do the measurements. However, it won't be available immediately. Sinz hopes that it will be ready in a few months. "I am in close contact with colleagues worldwide, some of whom have had a far worse experience of the pandemic than we have," she added.
Initial results have been published in the Journal of Proteome Research.
