New smartphone app may detect Zika, dengue in 30 minutes

WASHINGTON: Researchers including one of Indian origin have developed a new smartphone-controlled, batteryoperated diagnostic device that costs just $100 and can detect Zika, dengue and chikungunya within 30 minutes.

Testing for these mosquito-borne viruses currently requires a laboratory and patients have to wait days for results.

The tests require instruments that are roughly the size of a microwave oven and can cost up to $20,000. This makes rapid testing unrealistic for limited-resource clinics in developing countries where the viruses are prevalent.

“In addition to creating an app that serves as a simple interface to operate the device, we were able to adapt smartphone camera sensors to replace traditional laboratory sample analysis tools, allowing for unprecedented mobil- ity,” said Aashish Priye from Sandia National Laboratories in the US.

The device is based on the loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) diagnostic method, which eliminates the need to process a biological sample, such as blood or urine, before testing.

Conventional viral testing involves transporting a sample to a laboratory, extracting DNA or RNA from it and then multiplying the genetic materials through a process called polymerase chain reaction (PCR).

Like PCR, LAMP copies viral DNA/RNA, but without the heating and cooling cycle, a heavy-duty power source is not needed.

The addition of a few carefully designed biochemical agents allows a LAMP box to test a sample that is heated only once to 65 degrees Celsius for half an hour.