Evaluation of UPlink-RSV: prototype rapid antigen test for detection of respiratory syncytial virus infection.

A prototype rapid antigen test for the on-site detection of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection was developed and evaluated. The platform uses instrumented assay analysis, eliminating potential operator bias in the interpretation of the test result that may occur with visually interpreted rapid antigen assays. The device was tested as the first point-of-care (POC) infectious disease application of novel reporter up-converting phosphor technology (UPT) using a specifically designed portable UPT reader (UPlink). Assays were performed by mixing nasopharyngeal specimen with RSV-specific UPT reporter particles and addition of the mixture to a disposable cassette containing a lateral flow (LF) strip with RSV capture antibodies. UPT reporters bound on the specific capture zone were analyzed with the UPlink reader. Reproducibility testing of the UPlink-RSV (UPR) test by naïve users confirmed the potential of UPlink for POC applications where testing is not always performed by highly trained medical staff. The performance of UPR was further evaluated with clinical nasopharyngeal specimens. A prospective study at an independent test site demonstrated clinical parameters of 90% sensitivity and 98.3% specificity with an overall correlation of 96.2% as compared to viral culture with RT-PCR verification. These results are in agreement with in-house retrospective studies and results obtained with other available commercial rapid antigen assays.