[ad_1]
A team of Portuguese scientists created a saliva test that allows detecting after half an hour or an hour, through a color change, if a person is infected with the new coronavirus, it was announced this Friday.
The covid-19 diagnostic test based on saliva collection was developed by a team from the António Xavier Institute of Chemical and Biological Technology (ITQB) of the Universidade Nova de Lisboa, in collaboration with the Army’s Laboratory of Bromatology and Biological Defense and the Hospital of the Armed Forces.
This Friday there will be a first pilot screening with this test with volunteers from the ITQB, the institution announced in a press release.
The test, applied directly to saliva samples, uses a technology that allows, through a color change visible to the naked eye, to know in 30 to 60 minutes if a person is infected or not with the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus that causes covid-19 disease.
“If the reaction is pink, the test is negative. If it is yellow, it is positive,” says the ITQB note, noting that the test is “particularly suitable” for detecting covid-19 in airports, homes or schools. given that its “speed, sensitivity, ease of collection and low cost”.
The collection is carried out by the person, who spits saliva into a container, dispensing with the use of swabs and the use of specialized personnel.
The direct test of saliva samples allows to detect, in each test, “less than 100 copies of the virus”, with “a sensitivity of 85%”, which allows “to evaluate the infectivity of the person at the moment”.
By opting to also extract SARS-CoV-2 genetic material from saliva, the sensitivity of the test increases to 100%, says ITQB.
The test, based on a technology that amplifies the genetic material of the coronavirus at “constant temperature”, can be carried out with basic resources, such as an electric hob or a water bath at 65ºC.
To be used by the population, the test must still be validated and approved by the competent authorities.
The project has been funded with 35,000 euros by the Foundation for Science and Technology, within the call for covid-19 research “Research4COVID-19”.
The use of saliva as a means of diagnosing covid-19 is also being studied by the Gulbenkian Institute of Science (IGC), in collaboration with the Dona Estefânia hospitals, in Lisbon, and Amadora-Sintra.
The study plans to evaluate 300 people, 33% of whom are infected, of all age groups.
So far, the procedure “has been validated in some 80 hospitalized people, where, among others, the effectiveness of saliva against the nasopharyngeal sample has been compared, obtaining very promising results,” according to an IGC statement released this Friday.
