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.
