Reliance RT-PCR Kit For COVID19 Gives Covid Results in 2 hours
An RT-PCR kit that assures COVID-19 diagnosis in about 2 hours has been developed by scientists at Reliance Life Sciences, a subsidiary of Reliance Industries Ltd. The COVID-19 test used currently, the COVID-19 RT-PCR test, takes up to 24 hours to give a diagnosis.
According to the company sources, for the development of quantitative-Real Time PCR (RT-PCR) kit for COVID-19 diagnosis, unique RT-PCR primers were designed after analyzing more than 100 genomes of SARS-CoV-2 sequenced in India by computational biologists at Reliance Life Sciences. So far, the RT-PCR kit is considered as Gold standard.
The sources said that the kit has been technically approved by ICMR for adequate performance, and is termed as R-Green Kit (SARS COV2-real-time PCR). The kit’s diagnosis time is approximately 2 hours, and it comes with Actin as an internal control, is able to detect the presence of the RdRp gene, R-gene, E-gene of SARS-CoV-2 virus. The validation procedure by ICMR does not certify user-friendliness and does not approve/disapprove the design of the kit. The kit demonstrated 98.8% specificity and 98.7% sensitivity, as per ICMR results.
Making the kit simple to use and capable of using
readily available simple primes and reagents that can be produced in India is one of the biggest advantages of this indigenous kit developed by the R&D scientists working at the firm.Reliance Life Sciences conducted a separate study in which it was indicated that by the end of 2020, the COVID-19 death rate might be reduced significantly. The occurrence of mutation of the novel coronavirus’s structural and non-structural proteins form more than 7,000 SARS-CoV-2 virus genome sequences from 49 countries was showed in the study.
As per the study reported in the Scientific Journal of Biology, an inverse correlation between the two proteins Surface glycoprotein (S) and NSP6’s mutation rates with the death rate was seen in statistical analysis. The mutation of these two proteins is predicted to grow persistently, while in cluster I countries (Bangladesh and India), the death rate would fall down below 0.5% by end of 2020. Researchers noted that compared to cluster I and cluster III (New Zealand and Australia) countries, the S proteins and NSP6’s mutation rates are lower in cluster II countries (The USA).
Thus, the study proposes that the COVID-19 death rate in countries under cluster II will come down later than countries belonging to cluster I and III.
Apart from these, a patent from the United States was issued to Reliance for genetically modified microalgae which claim to defend/delay death.
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Reliance RT-PCR Kit For COVID19 Gives Covid Results in 2 hours
