<p>US scientists have developed a rapid and sensitive diagnostic system, consisting of a smartphone app and a testing kit, to detect SARS-CoV-2, its variants and the flu virus.</p>.<p>Developed by researchers at the University of California (UC)Santa Barbara, US, the system can provide a platform for inexpensive home-based testing.</p>.<p>It can be readily adapted for other pathogens with pandemic potential including deadly variants of SARS-CoV-2 and flu, they said.</p>.<p>The system, described in the journal JAMA Network Open, succeeded in achieving rapid and accurate diagnosis of Covid-19, SARS-CoV-2 variants, and flu viruses.</p>.<p>The app uses a smartphone's camera to measure a chemical reaction and determines a diagnosis in 25 minutes, at a fraction of the cost of current diagnostic methods.</p>.<p>"As new Covid variants emerge globally, testing and detection remain essential to pandemic control efforts," said study lead author Michael Mahan from UC Santa Barbara.</p>.<p>"Nearly half the world's population has a smartphone, and we believe that this holds exciting potential to provide fair and equal access to precision diagnostic medicine," Mahan said.</p>.<p>The lab kit can be produced for less than $100, and it requires little more than a smartphone, a hot plate and LED lights, the researchers said.</p>.<p>The screening tests can be run for less than $7 each versus $10 to $20 per rapid antigen test and $100 to $150 per PCR test, they said.</p>.<p>The process, termed smaRT-LAMP, is simple and straightforward.</p>.<p>A small volume of the patient's saliva is collected and analysed by the smartphone app using the phone's camera and the diagnostic kit.</p>.<p>No additional specialty materials are required, the researchers said.</p>.<p>PCR tests are the gold standard due to their sensitivity and accuracy, but they are slow, expensive and not portable, they said.</p>.<p>The researchers noted that LAMP tests match the sensitivity and accuracy of PCR -- at a fraction of the time and cost.</p>.<p>These tests occurs at constant temperature, which is suitable for point-of-care and home-based testing, they said.</p>.<p>"The key finding was solving the LAMP 'primer-dimer' problem -- false positives due to high sensitivity -- which scientists have struggled with for more than 20 years," said UC Santa Barbara scientist Douglas Heithoff.</p>.<p>"It took more than 500 attempts to solve it for Covid-19, after which flu viruses were detected on the very first try," he said.</p>.<p>The simple lab test can detect and differentiate Covid-19 and the flu, which show very similar respiratory disease symptoms and can lead to misdiagnosis.</p>.<p><em><strong>Check out the latest DH videos here:</strong></em></p>
<p>US scientists have developed a rapid and sensitive diagnostic system, consisting of a smartphone app and a testing kit, to detect SARS-CoV-2, its variants and the flu virus.</p>.<p>Developed by researchers at the University of California (UC)Santa Barbara, US, the system can provide a platform for inexpensive home-based testing.</p>.<p>It can be readily adapted for other pathogens with pandemic potential including deadly variants of SARS-CoV-2 and flu, they said.</p>.<p>The system, described in the journal JAMA Network Open, succeeded in achieving rapid and accurate diagnosis of Covid-19, SARS-CoV-2 variants, and flu viruses.</p>.<p>The app uses a smartphone's camera to measure a chemical reaction and determines a diagnosis in 25 minutes, at a fraction of the cost of current diagnostic methods.</p>.<p>"As new Covid variants emerge globally, testing and detection remain essential to pandemic control efforts," said study lead author Michael Mahan from UC Santa Barbara.</p>.<p>"Nearly half the world's population has a smartphone, and we believe that this holds exciting potential to provide fair and equal access to precision diagnostic medicine," Mahan said.</p>.<p>The lab kit can be produced for less than $100, and it requires little more than a smartphone, a hot plate and LED lights, the researchers said.</p>.<p>The screening tests can be run for less than $7 each versus $10 to $20 per rapid antigen test and $100 to $150 per PCR test, they said.</p>.<p>The process, termed smaRT-LAMP, is simple and straightforward.</p>.<p>A small volume of the patient's saliva is collected and analysed by the smartphone app using the phone's camera and the diagnostic kit.</p>.<p>No additional specialty materials are required, the researchers said.</p>.<p>PCR tests are the gold standard due to their sensitivity and accuracy, but they are slow, expensive and not portable, they said.</p>.<p>The researchers noted that LAMP tests match the sensitivity and accuracy of PCR -- at a fraction of the time and cost.</p>.<p>These tests occurs at constant temperature, which is suitable for point-of-care and home-based testing, they said.</p>.<p>"The key finding was solving the LAMP 'primer-dimer' problem -- false positives due to high sensitivity -- which scientists have struggled with for more than 20 years," said UC Santa Barbara scientist Douglas Heithoff.</p>.<p>"It took more than 500 attempts to solve it for Covid-19, after which flu viruses were detected on the very first try," he said.</p>.<p>The simple lab test can detect and differentiate Covid-19 and the flu, which show very similar respiratory disease symptoms and can lead to misdiagnosis.</p>.<p><em><strong>Check out the latest DH videos here:</strong></em></p>