Development of a tablet PC-based portable device for colorimetric determination of assays including COVID-19 and other pathogenic microorganisms

Abstract

There has been a strong and urgent demand to diagnose community transmission-driven coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) after it crossed borders. A large number of rapid and accurate tests and diagnoses are required at drive-through test stations, community clinics and hospitals. Isothermal amplification technology, such as loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) and recombinase polymerase amplification (RPA), provides excellent alternatives for resource limited test environments. LAMP has been shown to be comparable with polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and can be performed in less than 30 min by non-laboratory staff without ribonucleic acid (RNA) extractions commonly associated with PCR. LAMP tests on assays with SARS-CoV-2 and other pathogenic microorganisms, such as Dengue, Malaria, and Influenza viruses and Helicobacter pylori show color changes allowing test results to be interpreted by the color change of the assays. However, visual inspection of a large number of assays is prone to human error and manual record keeping makes test result tracking for an epidemiologic investigation very difficult and inefficient. The epidemiologic investigation is an essential part of the fight against community transmission-driven viruses. We have developed a very accurate and reliable, human error free, tablet PC-based portable device for colorimetric determination of assays including SARS-CoV-2 and other pathogenic microorganisms.