It sounds good: follow the epidemic in real time and recognize the mutations of the virus immediately. Before autumn and a possible second wave, a technology for this should be practical. This corona mass test is currently being developed at the Functional Genomics Center at the ETH by bioinformaticians and molecular biologists in collaboration with virologists from the University of Zurich.
The scientists use the gold standard for genome analysis: NGS – Next Generation Sequencing. The RNA of the virus is isolated and analyzed from a patient sample.
The test not only determines whether the person is currently infected with the virus. “We could easily search for other viruses from respiratory diseases at the same time,” says study leader Ralph Schlapbach. So see, for example, whether the flu is flaring up at the same time as a second corona wave or whether the patient has gene variants that are unfavorable for a Covid 19 disease. “It is not yet clear which genes they are, but if we knew it would be no problem afterwards.”
But the most important thing: You can tell immediately if the virus appears anywhere and whether the virus has changed. “At the moment we are flying blind in relation to the entire population,” says Ralph Schlapbach, “and we don’t know which easing measures have which influence on the epidemic. This requires mass tests. »
The infrastructure for this would already exist
The antibody tests that are currently being carried out throughout Switzerland (text above) show the infection situation with a delay of at least two to three weeks. “You always lag behind,” says Schlapbach.
The technology of next generation sequencing can be found at every major university location – so no major investments would be necessary. In addition, testing only costs around a tenth of the cost of a diagnostic corona test, Schlapbach estimates. And even only 2 francs per test if the isolated RNA from a nasal swab sample is already available. Schlapbach does not see these mass tests as competition to the corona infection tests. Because in order to be able to communicate the result to the patient with their test, a complex accreditation would be necessary. However, it could be used for pandiemie management at short notice.
The mass test should also be possible with nasal and throat swabs in two months if the test procedure has been made more sensitive. And how do you get so many people to test centers? For their part, they wanted to show what is possible and that the technology is ready for it, says Schlapbach. His team is in contact with the Swiss National Covid-19 Science Task Force. (kus)
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