scholarly journals Kitchen Range Oven Enabled One-tube RT-LAMP for RNA Detection at Home - A Potential Solution for Large-scale Screening of COVID-19

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu Lei
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Lamp Reaction ◽  
Sample Collection ◽  
Rna Detection ◽  
Closed Tube ◽  
One Step ◽  
User Friendly ◽  
Target Rna ◽  
Large Scale Screening ◽  
At Home

Rapid, low-cost, and user-friendly molecular diagnostic methods are prerequisite to address the outbreaks of infectious diseases. Especially during the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, there is an urgent need to build the global testing capacity up to 100-fold above what is achievable with current standard approaches. However, current gold standard methods such as RT-PCR and isothermal PCR (e.g., RT-LAMP), which are routinely conducted in laboratories, suffer from limit capacity due to the requirement of special equipment, multiple sample handling steps, and/or the need of skilled personnel. In this study, a kitchen Range Oven enabled RT-LAMP was conducted at a residential home without sacrificing the performance in RNA detection. In addition, one-step, closed-tube RT-LAMP for the detection of target RNA in the oven was accomplished by pre-loading sample collection solution and RT-LAMP reaction reagents into the bottom and cap cavity of PCR tube, respectively. After the addition of target RNA into sample collection solution through either swab swirling or direct pipetting, a flip-and-swing enabled mixing of sample solution and RT-LAMP reaction reagents was conducted first, followed by RT-LAMP detection at a constant temperature in pre-heated oven. The RNA positive sample can be obviously differentiated from the RNA negative sample through both naked-eye based turbidity detection and fluorescence detection under UV light. In conjunction with the user-friendly one-step, closed-tube concept, this study indicates that it is feasible to run RT-LAMP at home using oven with minimum involvement of end-users, thus offering an excellent molecular detection platform, which has the potential to boost the detection capacity for any nucleic acid target. It could be a potential solution for large-scale screening of COVID-19 in short time as the tests can be conducted by residents at home, without the need of well-trained health caregivers and capacity limitation.

scholarly journals Swab pooling for large-scale RT-qPCR screening of SARS-CoV-2

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana Paula Christoff ◽  
Giuliano Netto Flores Cruz ◽  
Aline Fernanda Rodrigues Sereia ◽  
Dellyana Rodrigues Boberg ◽  
Daniela Carolina de Bastiani ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Sample Collection ◽  
Laboratory Capacity ◽  
Positive Individual ◽  
Sample Pooling ◽  
Pooling Strategies ◽  
Low Prevalence ◽  
Pooled Samples ◽  
Sample Dilution ◽  
Large Scale Screening

Pool testing has been proposed as an alternative for large-scale SARS-CoV-2 screening. However, dilution factors proportional to the number of pooled samples have been a source of major concern regarding its diagnostic performance. Further, sample pooling can lead to increased laboratory workload and operational complexity. Therefore, pooling strategies that minimize sample dilution, loss of sensitivity, and laboratory overload are needed to allow reliable and large-scale screenings of SARS-CoV-2. Here, we describe a pooling procedure in which nasopharyngeal swabs are pooled together at the time of sample collection (swab pooling), decreasing laboratory manipulation and minimizing dilution of the viral RNA present in the samples. Paired analysis of pooled and individual samples from 613 patients revealed 94 positive individual tests. Having individual testing as a reference, no false-positives or false-negatives were observed for swab pooling. A Bayesian model estimated a sensitivity of 99% (Cr.I. 96.9% to 100%) and a specificity of 99.8% (Cr.I. 99.4% to 100%) for the swab pooling procedure. Data from additional 18,922 patients screened with swab pooling were included for further quantitative analysis. Mean Cq differences between individual and corresponding pool samples ranged from 0.1 Cq (Cr.I. -0.98 to 1.17) to 2.09 Cq (Cr.I. 1.24 to 2.94). Overall, 19,535 asymptomatic and presymptomatic patients were screened using 4,400 RT-qPCR assays, resulting in 246 positive patients (positivity rate 1.26%). This corresponds to an increase of 4.4 times in laboratory capacity and a reduction of 77% in required tests. Finally, these data demonstrate that swab pooling can significantly minimize sample dilution and sensitivity issues commonly seen in its traditional counterpart. Therefore, swab pooling represents a major alternative for reliable and large-scale screening of SARS-CoV-2 in low prevalence populations.

scholarly journals A serological assay to detect SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in at-home collected finger-prick dried blood spots

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donna Grace Karp ◽  
Kenneth Danh ◽  
David Seftel ◽  
Peter Robinson ◽  
Cheng-ting Tsai
Keyword(s):  
Healthcare Worker ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Health Care Systems ◽  
Dried Blood Spots ◽  
Sample Collection ◽  
Finger Prick ◽  
Care Systems ◽  
Hard To Reach Populations ◽  
Development And Validation ◽  
At Home

Accurate surveillance of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) incidence requires large-scale testing of the population. Current testing methods require in-person collection of biospecimens by a healthcare worker, limiting access of individuals who do not have access to testing facilities while placing both the patient and healthcare worker at risk of exposure to infection. We report the development and validation of a at-home finger-prick dried blood spot collection kit and an analysis method. We demonstrated 100% sensitivity and specificity using at-home collected specimens across the US. Such methods may facilitate the conduct of unbiased serosurveys within hard to reach populations and help reduce the sample collection burden of serological testing on both health care systems and individuals alike.

scholarly journals Development of at-home sample collection logistics for large-scale seroprevalence studies

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (11) ◽  
pp. e0258516
Author(s):  
Aishani V. Aatresh ◽  
Kate Cummings ◽  
Hilary Gerstein ◽  
Christopher S. Knight ◽  
Andreas Limberopolous ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Population Level ◽  
Sample Collection ◽  
Representative Study ◽  
Long Term Study ◽  
Serological Studies ◽  
High Engagement ◽  
At Home

Background Serological studies rely on the recruitment of representative cohorts; however, such efforts are specially complicated by the conditions surrounding the COVID19 pandemic. Methods We aimed to design and implement a fully remote methodology for conducting safe serological surveys that also allow for the engagement of representative study populations. Results This design was well-received and effective. 2,066 participants ≥18 years old were enrolled, reflecting the ethnic and racial composition of Massachusetts. >70% of them reported being satisfied/extremely satisfied with the online enrollment and at-home self-collection of blood samples. While 18.6% reported some discomfort experienced with the collection process, 72.2% stated that they would be willing to test weekly if enrolled in a long-term study. Conclusions High engagement and positive feedback from participants, as well as the quality of self-collected specimens, point to the usefulness of this fully remote, self-collection-based study design for future safer and efficient population-level serological surveys.

scholarly journals A serological assay to detect SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in at-home collected finger-prick dried blood spots

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Donna Grace Karp ◽  
Kenneth Danh ◽  
Noemi Fonseca Espinoza ◽  
David Seftel ◽  
Peter V. Robinson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Health Care Systems ◽  
Dried Blood Spots ◽  
Sample Collection ◽  
The Us ◽  
Finger Prick ◽  
Care Systems ◽  
Hard To Reach Populations ◽  
Development And Validation ◽  
At Home

AbstractAccurate surveillance of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) incidence requires large-scale testing of the population. Current testing methods require in-person collection of biospecimens by a healthcare worker, limiting access of individuals who do not have access to testing facilities while placing both patients and healthcare workers at risk of exposure to infection. We report the development and validation of a at-home finger-prick dried blood spot collection kit and an analysis method. We demonstrated 100% sensitivity and specificity using at-home collected specimens across the US. Such methods may facilitate the conduct of unbiased serosurveys within hard to reach populations and help reduce the sample collection burden of serological testing on both health care systems and individuals alike.

scholarly journals A 4-lineage statistical suite to evaluate the support of large-scale retrotransposon insertion data to reconstruct evolutionary trees

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
G Churakov ◽  
A Kuritzin ◽  
K Chukharev ◽  
F Zhang ◽  
F Wünnemann ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Incomplete Lineage Sorting ◽  
Evolutionary Trees ◽  
Lineage Sorting ◽  
High Throughput Data ◽  
Genome Wide ◽  
Tree Topologies ◽  
One Step ◽  
General Scientific ◽  
User Friendly

AbstractRetrophylogenomics makes use of genome-wide retrotransposon presence/absence insertion patterns to resolve questions in phylogeny and population genetics. In the genomics era, evaluating high-throughput data requires the associated development of appropriately powerful statistical tools. The currently used KKSC 3-lineage statistical test for evaluating the significance of data is limited by the number of possible tree topologies it can assess in one step. To improve on this, we have now extended the analysis to simultaneously compare 4-lineages, which now enables us to evaluate ten distinct presence/absence insertion patterns for 26 possible tree topologies plus 129 trees with different incidences of hybridization. Moreover, the new tool includes statistics for multiple ancestral hybridizations, ancestral incomplete lineage sorting, bifurcation, and polytomy. The test is embedded in a user-friendly web R-application (http://retrogenomics.uni-muenster.de:3838/hammlet/) and is available for use by the general scientific community.

Training Aides to Screen Children for Speech and Language Problems

1976 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 236-241 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marisue Pickering ◽  
William R. Dopheide
Keyword(s):  
Rural Areas ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
School Personnel ◽  
School Age Children ◽  
Speech And Language ◽  
Elementary School Age ◽  
Evaluation Procedures ◽  
Language Problems ◽  
Competency Based ◽  
Large Scale Screening

This report deals with an effort to begin the process of effectively identifying children in rural areas with speech and language problems using existing school personnel. A two-day competency-based workshop for the purpose of training aides to conduct a large-scale screening of speech and language problems in elementary-school-age children is described. Training strategies, implementation, and evaluation procedures are discussed.

Recent Progress in Machine Learning-based Prediction of Peptide Activity for Drug Discovery

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 4-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qihui Wu ◽  
Hanzhong Ke ◽  
Dongli Li ◽  
Qi Wang ◽  
Jiansong Fang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Machine Learning ◽  
Drug Discovery ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Recent Progress ◽  
High Specificity ◽  
Learning Approaches ◽  
Anticancer Peptides ◽  
The Past ◽  
Traditional Approaches ◽  
Large Scale Screening

Over the past decades, peptide as a therapeutic candidate has received increasing attention in drug discovery, especially for antimicrobial peptides (AMPs), anticancer peptides (ACPs) and antiinflammatory peptides (AIPs). It is considered that the peptides can regulate various complex diseases which are previously untouchable. In recent years, the critical problem of antimicrobial resistance drives the pharmaceutical industry to look for new therapeutic agents. Compared to organic small drugs, peptide- based therapy exhibits high specificity and minimal toxicity. Thus, peptides are widely recruited in the design and discovery of new potent drugs. Currently, large-scale screening of peptide activity with traditional approaches is costly, time-consuming and labor-intensive. Hence, in silico methods, mainly machine learning approaches, for their accuracy and effectiveness, have been introduced to predict the peptide activity. In this review, we document the recent progress in machine learning-based prediction of peptides which will be of great benefit to the discovery of potential active AMPs, ACPs and AIPs.

A Simple Synthesis of the Anticancer Drug Altretamine

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (8) ◽  
pp. 628-630
Author(s):  
Vu Binh Duong ◽  
Pham Van Hien ◽  
Tran Thai Ngoc ◽  
Phan Dinh Chau ◽  
Tran Khac Vu
Keyword(s):  
Aqueous Solution ◽  
Anticancer Drug ◽  
Potassium Hydroxide ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Synthesis Method ◽  
Practical Method ◽  
Cyanuric Chloride ◽  
Simple Synthesis ◽  
High Yield ◽  
One Step

A simple and practical method for the synthesis on a large scale of altretamine (1), a wellknown antitumor drug, has been successfully developed. The synthesis method involves the conversion of cyanuric chloride (2) into altretamine (1) by dimethylamination of 2 with an aqueous solution of 40% dimethylamine and potassium hydroxide in 1, -dioxan 4in one step to give altretamine (1) in high yield.

scholarly journals Analytical Validation and Clinical Application of Rapid Serological Tests for SARS-CoV-2 Suitable for Large-Scale Screening

Diagnostics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 869
Author(s):  
Amedeo De Nicolò ◽  
Valeria Avataneo ◽  
Jessica Cusato ◽  
Alice Palermiti ◽  
Jacopo Mula ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Early Diagnosis ◽  
Real Time Pcr ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
High Sensitivity ◽  
Analytical Validation ◽  
Pcr Assay ◽  
Serological Tests ◽  
Flow Test ◽  
Lateral Flow Test ◽  
Large Scale Screening

Recently, large-scale screening for COVID-19 has presented a major challenge, limiting timely countermeasures. Therefore, the application of suitable rapid serological tests could provide useful information, however, little evidence regarding their robustness is currently available. In this work, we evaluated and compared the analytical performance of a rapid lateral-flow test (LFA) and a fast semiquantitative fluorescent immunoassay (FIA) for anti-nucleocapsid (anti-NC) antibodies, with the reverse transcriptase real-time PCR assay as the reference. In 222 patients, LFA showed poor sensitivity (55.9%) within two weeks from PCR, while later testing was more reliable (sensitivity of 85.7% and specificity of 93.1%). Moreover, in a subset of 100 patients, FIA showed high sensitivity (89.1%) and specificity (94.1%) after two weeks from PCR. The coupled application for the screening of 183 patients showed satisfactory concordance (K = 0.858). In conclusion, rapid serological tests were largely not useful for early diagnosis, but they showed good performance in later stages of infection. These could be useful for back-tracing and/or to identify potentially immune subjects.

scholarly journals A Review on Additive Manufacturing Possibilities for Electrical Machines

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (7) ◽  
pp. 1940
Author(s):  
Muhammad Usman Naseer ◽  
Ants Kallaste ◽  
Bilal Asad ◽  
Toomas Vaimann ◽  
Anton Rassõlkin
Keyword(s):  
Additive Manufacturing ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Electrical Machines ◽  
Electromagnetic Properties ◽  
Scale Production ◽  
Performance Parameters ◽  
Large Scale Production ◽  
One Step ◽  
Manufacturing Techniques

This paper presents current research trends and prospects of utilizing additive manufacturing (AM) techniques to manufacture electrical machines. Modern-day machine applications require extraordinary performance parameters such as high power-density, integrated functionalities, improved thermal, mechanical & electromagnetic properties. AM offers a higher degree of design flexibility to achieve these performance parameters, which is impossible to realize through conventional manufacturing techniques. AM has a lot to offer in every aspect of machine fabrication, such that from size/weight reduction to the realization of complex geometric designs. However, some practical limitations of existing AM techniques restrict their utilization in large scale production industry. The introduction of three-dimensional asymmetry in machine design is an aspect that can be exploited most with the prevalent level of research in AM. In order to take one step further towards the enablement of large-scale production of AM-built electrical machines, this paper also discusses some machine types which can best utilize existing developments in the field of AM.

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