Author: David Bradley

In a recently published review dedicated to the diagnostics of viral infections, a Russian research team featuring MIPT (Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology) researchers is the first to systematically describe and summarize the cutting-edge technologies available. A number of new effective methods of virus detection have been developed over the past few years, including those targeted at unknown pathogens. The authors described the so-called high-throughput next-generation sequencing as a potent new approach. The method promises to revolutionize the detection and analysis of new pathogenic viruses, but it will be at least several years until it is introduced into mainstream clinical practice.

“There are, by various statistical estimations, over 320,000 viruses that can infect mammals,’ explains MIPT’s Kamil Khafizov. “To date, less than 1% of this vast multitude has been studied.”

Most viruses, including those that cause respiratory, digestive, and other diseases in humans, remain unresearched and thus almost undetectable. The reason behind this is the narrow spectrum of viruses that the modern testing systems are designed to target.

‘Metaphorically, we are attempting to look at a vast sea of threats through the eye of a needle,’ the authors write in the review. Among other things, they explore the shortcomings of the polymerase chain reaction method. This essential technique for microorganism molecular testing fails to identify poorly explored viruses, and this constitutes one of the key problems in modern virology. There are, however, new methods that may potentially solve the issues of detecting and identifying new microorganisms. The authors describe next-generation sequencing as the most promising. Also known as high-throughput sequencing, it enables the analysis of multiple DNA molecules in parallel, be it a set of samples, different regions of the same genome, or both.

“Efficient mathematical algorithms are a key part of the method,” explains says MIPT grad student Alina Matsvay. “They allow researchers to compare the genome of an unknown virus against all available references of viral genomes, and predict all of its possible characteristics, including its pathogenic potential.”

Khafizov noted that the coronavirus pandemic has demonstrated the importance of next-generation sequencing methods for identifying new pathogens in clinical samples and studying the molecular mechanisms of virus transmission from animals to humans.

https://doi.org/10.3390/v12020211

Scientists in the UK are developing a new smart testing device for the coronavirus and now need backers to get the device manaufactured quickly and in large quantities.

The team from Brunel University London, Lancaster University and the University of Surrey reckon the can test for Covid-19 infection in half an hour. The device has already been successfully tested in The Philippines to check chickens for viral infection and the team has now adapted it to detect Covid-19 in people. The system is quick and easy to use, requires little training and could be used by healthcare workers and even lay people.

“Now we have access to multiple genomes (blueprint) of SARS-CoV-2 virus, we can develop reliable molecular assay in a week and have them up and running on the device in three or four weeks,’ explains Brunel’s Wamadeva Balachandran. “We are confident it will respond well, and we rapidly need industrial partners to come on board. It will have a huge impact on the population at large,” he adds.

The operator takes an oral or nasal swab, puts it into the device and connects to the smart phone app. Samples do not need to go to a laboratory and the same device can be used to test six samples simultaneously. The addition of telemedicine functionality will make the device even more useful. The idea is to try and make it cheaper than other tests so it can be used worldwide at home, in doctor’s surgeries, hospitals, and workplaces. Once the infection is identified, the intelligent system will track down all people who had close contact with the newly identified patient in the previous two weeks and alert them to the threat.

Source: https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/news/uk-scientists-develop-new-rapid-smart-testing-device-for-coronavirus

I am receiving an inordinate number of personal messages on social media and emails asking about different aspects of Covid-19 and the coronavirus. Often the question will be about some email that has purportedly arrived from a friend of a friend in China or Italy or wherever and claiming all sorts of conspiratorial nonsense, proclaiming the end of civilisation, or pointing out how some miracle cure might be a miracle cure (it won’t be). Often recipients are told to urgently share the message with all their contacts.

Now, I am not medically trained, I cannot give medical advice. But, what I do know is that random notes of unknown original source about scientific and medical matters from non-scientist, non-medical friends are invariably BS, they were long before Covid-19 and will remain so long after it’s over and we’ve moved on to the next crisis.

Often the BS is sprinkled with truth glitter as a kind of camouflage, but the stinking turd beneath the shiny, thin veneer of sparkles is still unpolished, fake news, scam fodder, or somehow maliciously biased ordure. It may also just be common or garden bovine waste of the kind you might use to condition allotment soil to make your rhubarb grow thicker if there were not sufficient equine output available.

If you receive such a message, just delete it. It takes a simple swipe, tap or click and you can then forget about it. Please don’t share it. Please don’t email it to people you imagine might be able to remove the glitter and reveal some hidden truth.

If you have real concerns and questions about Covid-19 and the coronavirus that causes it, visit the websites of the NHS or the WHO and take note of their advice and guidance.

Stay well friends :-)