Field validation of the performance of paper-based tests for the detection of the Zika and chikungunya viruses in serum samples


Abstract:

In low-resource settings, resilience to infectious disease outbreaks can be hindered by limited access to diagnostic tests. Here we report the results of double-blinded studies of the performance of paper-based diagnostic tests for the Zika and chikungunya viruses in a field setting in Latin America. The tests involved a cell-free expression system relying on isothermal amplification and toehold-switch reactions, a purpose-built portable reader and onboard software for computer vision-enabled image analysis. In patients suspected of infection, the accuracies and sensitivities of the tests for the Zika and chikungunya viruses were, respectively, 98.5% (95% confidence interval, 96.2–99.6%, 268 serum samples) and 98.5% (95% confidence interval, 91.7–100%, 65 serum samples) and approximately 2 aM and 5 fM (both concentrations are within clinically relevant ranges). The analytical specificities and sensitivities of the tests for cultured samples of the viruses were equivalent to those of the real-time quantitative PCR. Cell-free synthetic biology tools and companion hardware can provide de-centralized, high-capacity and low-cost diagnostics for use in low-resource settings.

Año de publicación:

2022

Keywords:

    Fuente:

    scopusscopus

    Tipo de documento:

    Article

    Estado:

    Acceso abierto

    Áreas de conocimiento:

    • Microbiología
    • Microbiología

    Áreas temáticas de Dewey:

    • Enfermedades
    • Microorganismos, hongos y algas
    Procesado con IAProcesado con IA

    Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible:

    • ODS 3: Salud y bienestar
    • ODS 17: Alianzas para lograr los objetivos
    • ODS 9: Industria, innovación e infraestructura
    Procesado con IAProcesado con IA