Kerala Develops An Effective Rt-PCR Kit To Identify Wide Variety Of Mutant Covid Strains

An RT-PCR (Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction) kit established by a medical institute in Kerala is said to have a higher detection rate. The multiplex RT-PCR kit, developed by the Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology (SCTIMST), has 97.3 percent sensitivity and 100% specificity in COVID-19 detection, reported LiveMint .

The entire process takes about 45 minutes, not including the time it takes to isolate RNA from the nasopharyngeal swab samples.

In contrast to regular kits which are in use from the earlier times, which take about five to six hours to complete, the institute's latest kit is significantly faster. SCTIMST has signed an agreement with Huwel Life Sciences in Hyderabad to make it available to the general public.

The Indian Council of Medical Research, the country's apex health body controlling the coronavirus situation, has approved the latest technology, which is less likely to show any false positive cases and has a minimal 2.7 percent chance of predicting false negative cases.

According to the report the kit targets two genes of the SARS-CoV-2 and human RNAse P, which aids in the detection of a variety of mutant strains. It functions by amplifying all three genes in a single reaction, which is known as multiplex Taqman chemistry.