Department of Zoology, University of Rajasthan, JLN Marg, Jaipur, 302004, India.
Physical Sciences Research Area, TCS Research, Tata Research Development and Design Centre, Tata Consultancy Services Limited, Pune, 411013, India.
Infection. 2023 Feb;51(1):1-19. doi: 10.1007/s15010-022-01819-6. Epub 2022 Apr 26.
An outbreak of the coronavirus disease caused by a novel pathogen created havoc and continues to affect the entire world. As the pandemic progressed, the scientific community was faced by the limitations of existing diagnostic methods. In this review, we have compared the existing diagnostic techniques such as reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), antigen and antibody detection, computed tomography scan, etc. and techniques in the research phase like microarray, artificial intelligence, and detection using novel materials; on the prospect of sample preparation, detection procedure (qualitative/quantitative), detection time, screening efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and ability to detect different variants. A detailed comparison of different techniques showed that RT-PCR is still the most widely used and accepted coronavirus detection method despite certain limitations (single gene targeting- in context to mutations). New methods with similar efficiency that could overcome the limitations of RT-PCR may increase the speed, simplicity, and affordability of diagnosis. In addition to existing devices, we have also discussed diagnostic devices in the research phase showing high potential for clinical use. Our approach would be of enormous benefit in selecting a diagnostic device under a given scenario, which would ultimately help in controlling the current pandemic caused by the coronavirus, which is still far from over with new variants emerging.
新型病原体引起的冠状病毒病疫情肆虐，至今仍在影响全球。随着疫情的发展，科学界面临着现有诊断方法的局限性。在这篇综述中，我们比较了现有的诊断技术，如逆转录聚合酶链反应（RT-PCR）、抗原和抗体检测、计算机断层扫描等，以及研究阶段的技术，如微阵列、人工智能和新型材料检测；在样品制备、检测程序（定性/定量）、检测时间、筛选效率、成本效益和检测不同变体的能力方面。不同技术的详细比较表明，尽管存在某些局限性（针对突变的单基因靶向），但 RT-PCR 仍然是最广泛使用和接受的冠状病毒检测方法。具有类似效率且可以克服 RT-PCR 局限性的新方法可能会提高诊断的速度、简单性和可负担性。除了现有的设备，我们还讨论了研究阶段具有高临床应用潜力的诊断设备。在给定情况下选择诊断设备，这将对控制当前仍在肆虐的冠状病毒疫情有很大的帮助，而且随着新变体的出现，疫情还远未结束。
