Many countries are currently in a state of lockdown due to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. One key requirement to safely transition out of lockdown is the continuous testing of the population to identify infected subjects. Currently, detection is performed at points of care using quantitative reverse-transcription PCR, thus requiring dedicated professionals and equipment. Here, we developed a protocol based on reverse transcribed loop-mediated isothermal amplification for the detection of SARS-CoV-2. This protocol is applied directly to SARS-CoV-2 nose and throat swabs, with no RNA purification step required. We tested this protocol on over 180 suspected patients, and compared the results to those obtained using the standard method. We further succeeded in applying the protocol to self-collected saliva samples from confirmed cases. Since the proposed protocol can detect SARS-CoV-2 from saliva and provides on-the-spot results, it allows simple and continuous surveillance of the community.

Impact statement

Humanity is currently experiencing a global pandemic with devastating implications on human health and the economy. Most countries are gradually exiting their lockdown state. We are currently lacking rapid and simple viral detections, especially methods that can be performed in the household. Here, we applied RT-LAMP directly on human clinical swabs and self-collected saliva samples. We adjusted the method to allow simple and rapid viral detection, with no RNA purification steps. By testing our method on over 180 human samples, we determined its sensitivity, and by applying it to other viruses, we determined its specificity. We believe this method has a promising potential to be applied world-wide as a simple and cheap surveillance test for SARS-CoV-2.

中文翻译：

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对患者的SARS-CoV-2进行直接现场检测。

由于SARS-CoV-2大流行，许多国家目前处于封锁状态。安全退出锁定范围的一项关键要求是对人群进行持续测试以识别感染对象。当前，使用定量逆转录PCR在护理点进行检测，因此需要专门的专业人员和设备。在这里，我们开发了基于逆转录环介导的等温扩增的协议，用于检测SARS-CoV-2。该方案直接应用于SARS-CoV-2鼻咽拭子，无需RNA纯化步骤。我们在180多名可疑患者中测试了该方案，并将结果与​​使用标准方法获得的结果进行了比较。我们进一步成功地将该方案应用于已确诊病例的自收集唾液样本。

影响陈述

人类目前正在经历一场全球性流行病，对人类健康和经济造成毁灭性的影响。大多数国家正在逐渐退出锁定状态。我们目前缺乏快速简单的病毒检测方法，尤其是可以在家庭中执行的方法。在这里，我们将RT-LAMP直接应用于人类临床拭子和自收集的唾液样本。我们调整了方法，以实现简单，快速的病毒检测，而无需进行RNA纯化步骤。通过在180多个人类样本上测试我们的方法，我们确定了其敏感性，并将其应用于其他病毒，我们确定了其特异性。我们认为，这种方法作为SARS-CoV-2的简单而廉价的监视测试，有可能在全世界范围内应用。