CSIR-CCMB gets permission for Dry Swab RT-PCR Covid-19 Test

CSIR-CCMB gets permission for Dry Swab RT-PCR Covid-19 Test

Part of: GS Prelims and GS-II – Health & GS-III – Sci & Tech

In news

• Recently, the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CSIR-CCMB) has got the permission of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) to commercially use the dry swab RNA-extraction free testing method for the Covid-19.

Key takeaways

• Dry swab method has a consistency of 96.9%.
• Dry swabs eluted directly into a simple buffered solution can support molecular detection of SARS-CoV-2 via endpoint RT-PCR without substantially compromising sensitivity.
• Dry swab technique does not require VTM and RNA extraction process. 
• It can be directly used for RT-PCR testing.
• It has the potential of bringing down the costs and time of testing by 40-50%.
• The screening can also be enhanced several-fold with immediate effect 
• The whole process is safer as well.
• It is easy to implement with no requirement of new kits.
• Existing manpower can perform this with no additional training.

Important value addition

RT-PCR Test

• Kary Mullis, the American biochemist invented the PCR technique. 
• He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1993.
• Under the test, copies of a segment of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) are created using an enzyme called Polymerase.
• The ‘chain reaction’ signifies how the DNA fragments are copied exponentially, where one is copied into two, the two are copied into four, and so on.
• A fluorescent DNA binding dye called the “probe” is added to DNA, which shows the presence of the virus on a fluorometer.
• Covid-19 is made of RNA (ribonucleic acid). 
• In order to detect it, RNA is converted into DNA using a technique called reverse transcription.
• The copies of the DNA are then made and amplified.