On February 22, the nucleus acid test kit for six respiratory viruses (or on-chip loop-medicated isothermal amplification (LAMP)), which has been designed and developed jointly by West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu CapitalBio Pro Co., Ltd. and Tsinghua University, was approved by the State Food and Drug Administration as the 2nd batch of emergency medical equipment for novel coronavirus (registration certificate number: GXZZ 20203400178). It will be soon applied to the frontline for fighting against the epidemic by providing fast, accurate and effective diagnosis for a large number of patients and medical staff.
This test chip, developed under the guidance of Academician Zhong Nanshan, leader of the high-level expert group of the National Health Commission and Academician Li Lanjuan, expert of the said group, enables to detect six common respiratory viruses, including novel coronaviruses, at one time within 1.5 hours, by collecting only samples of secreta of nose or throat swab of patients. Currently, it has been granted 15 patents and 7 science& technology awards.
According to an CGTN interview to Prof. Chen Lei, Head of Clinical Research Management Department of WCH, said "In our industry, we believe nucleic acid detection is more accurate than antibodies. Just to share with you, in a previous experiment, we found that a patient was misdiagnosed. The COVID-19 patient had actually recovered, but showed symptoms thereafter. He was first diagnosed as being RE-infected with the novel coronavirus. But our chip detected he was also co-infected with ANOTHER virus. So this is where our clinical value lies."
A number of hospitals had reportedly placed orders within a short time upon the success of the research and development of the test kit; and such products had been urgently sent to major hospitals across the country, including those in the seriously hit areas, such as: Tongji Hospital (Zhongfa Branch) of Huazhong University of Science & Technology, Union Hospital Affiliated to Tongji Medical College of HUST, Huoshenshan Hospital and Hubei Provincial People’s Hospital, among others.
