Simple test for flu could improve diagnosis and surveillance

Broad Institute of MIT and HarvardJun 21 2024 Now researchers have developed a low-cost paper strip test that could allow more patients to find out which type of flu they have and get the right treatment.

"Ultimately, we hope these tests will be as simple as rapid antigen tests, and they'll still have the specificity and performance of a nucleic acid test that would normally be done in a laboratory setting," said Cameron Myhrvold, co-senior author on the study along with Pardis Sabeti, an institute member at the Broad and a professor at Harvard University and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, as well as a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator.

Typical diagnostic approaches such as polymerase chain reaction require lengthy processing times, trained personnel, specialized equipment, and freezers to store reagents at -80°C, whereas SHINE can be conducted at room temperature in about 90 minutes. Currently, the assay only requires an inexpensive heat block to warm the reaction, and the researchers are working to streamline the process with the goal of returning results in 15 minutes.

Assay CRISPR Diagnostic Diagnostics H1N1 H3N2 H5N1 Influenza Molecular Diagnostics Public Health SARS SARS-Cov-2

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