The control of COVID-19 requires the early detection and isolation of patients infected with SARS-CoV-2. This process is performed mainly from nasopharyngeal swab samples and the detection of the viral RNA is done by reverse transcription followed by polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). This analysis requires a previous step to RT-PCR which is the RNA extraction from the swab sample. This step is expensive, laborious, time-consuming and depends on imported reagents. This makes difficult large-scale testing in many countries, including Argentina.

To solve this problem, we conform an interdisciplinary team integrated by members of our lab – Valeria Levi, Martin Stortz, Paula Verneri – and collaborators of other groups and institutions: Valeria Genoud (FCEN, UBA), Ariel Waisman (FLENI / CONICET), Bruno Berardino (FCEN, UBA / IQUIBICEN - CONICET), Virginia Dansey (FCEN, UBA / UMYMFOR, CONICET) and Federico Remes Lenicov (FMED, UBA / INBIRS, CONICET).

After months of intense work, we developed and validated an alternative method to traditional RNA extraction. This method involves an enzymatic treatment and the thermal inactivation of the virus, resulting in a cheaper, simpler, faster method that does not requires imported reagents. We validated the method with a large number of samples and verified that this method does not reduce the sensitivity and specificity of the RT-PCR analysis. The methodological details and the results obtained by our group can be found in a preprint article, which has not been revised by peers yet. 

The Argentine Research Council (CONICET) and the School of Sciencies of the University of Buenos Aires (Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales - Universidad de Buenos Aires) have signed a transfer agreement with the local company INBIO HIGHWAY, which produces and sells the FlashPrep®ARN SARS CoV-2 Highway reagent, neccesary for the application of the method.

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Link to preprint article published in MedRxiv

Link to news published by the Ministry of Science and Technology