Scientists can determine which variation has infected a COVID-19 patient in only a few hours, a crucial process that often takes days or weeks in medical facilities but may have a significant impact on treatment choices.
The COVID-19 test CoVarScan, created by pathologist Jeffrey SoRelle, M.D., and colleagues last year, quickly identifies the signs of eight hotspots on the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
The team now reports in the journal Clinical Chemistry that CoVarScan can effectively distinguish between all current variations of SARS-CoV-2, and is as accurate as other techniques used to diagnose COVID-19 after testing it on more than 4,000 patients' samples obtained at UT Southwestern.
Testing CoVarScan to patients
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According to Dr. SoRelle, an assistant professor of pathology and the study's principal author, experts can swiftly ascertain what variations are already in the population and whether a new variant is forming using this test, as per ScienceDaily.
When we deal with variations that react differently to medicines, it also has ramifications for certain patients.
Public health officials have been able to monitor the spread of COVID-19 in North Texas, thanks to testing findings from UT Southwestern's Once Upon a Time Human Genomics Center, and base policy choices on the frequency of variations.
Additionally, doctors have utilized the findings to select monoclonal antibodies that are more efficient against certain strains infecting severely ill COVID-19 patients.
Other COVID-19 assays are available, however, they often only detect tiny compounds on the surface of the virus or a piece of the SARS-CoV-2 genetic material, not the variation itself.
Many scientists are also concerned that these tests may not be reliable in detecting particular variations, or may fail to catch emerging strains.
Whole-genome sequencing, which is time-consuming and expensive and relies on advanced tools and analysis to spell out the whole RNA sequence contained in the viruses, is often required to identify which form of COVID-19 a patient has.
Dr. SoRelle and his colleagues at UT Southwestern sought to monitor how effectively existing tests were picking up new SARS-CoV-2 strains in early 2021.
They created their own test while working in the McDermott Center Next Generation Sequencing Core, a division of the Eugene McDermott Center for Human Growth and Development, which is run by Helen Hobbs, M.D., Professor of Internal Medicine and Molecular Genetics.
They realized that sequencing a large number of specimens would not be timely or cost-effective.
CoVarScan focuses on eight SARS-CoV-2 areas where viral variants frequently diverge.
It analyzes the length of repeating genomic areas that tend to increase and decrease as the virus matures and finds minor mutations where the sequence of RNA building blocks differs.
In comparison to whole-genome sequencing, the CoVarScan demonstrated 96% sensitivity and 99% specificity during the study, as per Wio News.
Eight SARS-CoV-2 areas that often vary across virus variations are detected by the CoVarScan test, according to researchers.
It measures the length of repetitive genomic sequences that tend to increase and shrink as the virus evolves by detecting minor alterations in those areas.
For the purpose of measuring and copying the RNA at these eight places of interest, the technique uses polymerase chain reaction (PCR).
