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Updated: Oct 13, 2025
Author Spotlight: Advancing Pathogen Diagnostics with Standardized LAMP
Published on: September 8, 2023
Two extraction-free reverse transcription loop-mediated isothermal amplification assays for detection of SARS-CoV-2
Meng Yee Lai1, Fatma Diyana Mohd Bukhari1, Nur Zulaikha Zulkefli1
1Department of Parasitology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, 50603, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Background:
Current assays for detection of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) rely on time consuming, costly and laboratory based methods for virus isolation, purification and removing inhibitors. To address this limitation, we propose a simple method for testing RNA from nasopharyngeal swab samples that bypasses the RNA purification step.
Methods:
In the current project, we have described two extraction-free reverse transcription loop-mediated isothermal amplification (RT-LAMP) assays for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 by using E gene and RdRp gene as the targets.
Results:
Here, results showed that reverse transcription loop-mediated isothermal amplification assays with 88.4% sensitive (95% CI: 74.9-96.1%) and 67.4% sensitive (95% CI: 51.5-80.9%) for E gene and RdRp gene, respectively.
Conclusion:
Without the need of RNA purification, our developed RT-LAMP assays for direct detection of SARS-CoV-2 from nasopharyngeal swab samples could be turned into alternatives to qRT-PCR for rapid screening.
