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P5_mobile_sensitive_SARS-CoV-2_test

Research Project
 | 
01.07.2020
 - 31.12.2022

The current pandemic outbreak of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes the disease COVID-19 is demonstrating the vulnerability of our globalized society for such threats. 1 Governments around the globe were forced to implement counter measures that put a high burden on public life and our economy in order to prevent the collapse of our healthcare system and the death of thousands of patients. 2 One of the main reasons such measures were needed are the inadequacies of our current disease detection system. State-of-the-art systems, while very accurate, are too slow and too expensive to effectively detect infected subjects and help prevent the spread of a pandemic disease. While the digital remote consulting and assessment of symptomatic patients via phone or video call has been adopted, a remote diagnostic test remains lacking. 3 Thus, our current paradigm to wait until symptoms appear before people are tested in centralized facilities is fundamentally flawed to fight diseases like COVID-19. SARS-CoV-2 can be transmitted by patients long before symptoms appear or even by asymptomatic patients. 4,5 As the incubation period lasts several days, 6 these issues lead to the creation of a blind spot: i.e. many patients that are transmitting the disease are currently not diagnosable. The only way to remedy this blind spot, to contain and further prevent pandemic diseases before a vaccine is available, is a new type of test that is mobile, fast, cheap, lab-independent and accurate. The possibility to test large parts of the population at home, avoiding high costs and high strain for the healthcare system, will significantly contribute to immediate containment of such diseases and prevention of the loss of lives, without the need for counter measures that cause large economic damage such as ones we are currently experiencing. Within this proposed project, the group of Prof. Vörös (ETH Zürich), who is leading this project, will develop a rapid test system based on lateral flow assays, with drastically improved sensitivity, while maintaining the point-of-need principle (i.e. rapid turn-around time and immediate availability of the test result). With this test, a clinical sensitivity of close to 100% for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 from nasopharyngeal or throat swab samples seems likely. Our group will then benchmark this technology with real samples against clinically validated methods. The aim of the planned study is to clinically validate the developed test and determine its performance characteristics compared to the current gold standard [a laboratory-developed, qualitative SARS-CoV-2 real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR)] and in two scenarios (professional-collected vs. self-collected swabs). Patients with suspicion of COVID-19 presenting to the outpatient clinic of the University Hospital Basel or having been diagnosed with COVID-19 after admission to the hospital will be asked for participation in this validation study if a SARS-CoV-2 test is deemed necessary by the treating physicians. Additionally, patients with confirmed viral upper or lower respiratory tract infections will be included. This proposed new test is a unique tool with a high potential to dramatically impact the spread of infectious diseases such as COVID-19 and to decrease mortality and the high economic burden of pandemic diseases. References: Ghebreyesus, A. T. WHO Director-General's opening remarks at the media briefing on COVID-19 - 11 March 2020. https://www.who.int/dg/speeches/detail/who-director-general-s-opening-remarks-at-the-media-briefing-on-covid-19---11-march-2020. Dayrit, M. & Mendoza, R. U. Social Cohesion vs COVID-19. SSRN Electron. J. (2020) doi:10.2139/ssrn.3555152. Greenhalgh, T., Koh, G. C. H. & Car, J. Covid-19: a remote assessment in primary care. BMJ 368 , m1182 (2020). Zou, L. et al. SARS-CoV-2 Viral Load in Upper Respiratory Specimens of Infected Patients. N. Engl. J. Med. NEJMc2001737 (2020) doi:10.1056/NEJMc2001737. Corman, V. M. et al. Detection of 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) by real-time RT-PCR. Eurosurveillance 25 , 2000045 (2020). Bai, Y. et al. Presumed Asymptomatic Carrier Transmission of COVID-19. JAMA (2020) doi:10.1001/jama.2020.2565

Funding

P5_mobile_sensitive_SARS-CoV-2_test

Foundations / Associations (GrantsTool), 07.2020-12.2022 (30)
PI : Osthoff, Michael.

Members (3)

MALE avatar

Michael Osthoff

Principal Investigator
MALE avatar

Janos Vörös

Principal Investigator
FEMALE avatar

Sarah Dräger

Project Member