Different Methods for Molecular and Rapid Detection of Human Novel Coronavirus

While PCR has been recognized as one of the appropriate ways to diagnose infectious diseases, Loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) which is a nucleic acid amplification method, can be considered as an alternative to PCR, and it is faster, cost-effective, and easier to perform than nested PCR.

Keywords were searched in PubMed/MEDLINE, Scopus and Institute for Scientific Information Web of Science, as well as the search engine of Google Scholar. Keywords included PCR, LAMP, RAA, RPA, Virus and COVID-19.

LAMP technology has been extensively applied for the detection of human pathogenic bacteria, crop pests, pathogenic organisms and components in meat products. A new isotheral method, Recombinase polymerase amplification (RPA), can amplify the DNA as well as RPA. RPA involves benefits of isothermal PCR as well as simplicity and rapid amplification. Recombinase aided amplification (RAA) assay has been favorably used in the detection of bacterial and viral pathogens and solved the technical difficulties posed by DNA amplification methods because it does not need thermal denaturation of the template and involves a low and constant temperature.

Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction, digital PCR, LAMP, nicking endonuclease amplification reaction, recombinase polymerase amplification, and clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats are different nucleic acid amplification tests of COVID-19. LAMP methods can be more specific than qPCR and immunoassays. The LAMP assay can be applied for rapid detection of SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV, SARS-CoV-2, and influenza, because LAMP is a highly sensitive and specific DNA/RNA amplification technique.