Evaluation of reverse transcriptase-polymerase spiral reaction assay for rapid and sensitive detection of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2.

Background And Aim: Existing real-time reverse transcriptase PCR (RT-qPCR) has certain limitations for the point-of-care detection of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) since it requires sophisticated instruments, reagents and skilled laboratory personnel. In this study, we evaluated an assay termed the reverse transcriptase-polymerase spiral reaction (RT-PSR) for rapid and visual detection of SARS-CoV-2.

Methods: The RT-PSR assay was optimized using RdRp gene and evaluated for the detection of SARS-CoV-2.