A novel point-of-care test of respiratory syncytial viral RNA based on cellulose-based purification and convective PCR.

Background: Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection is a global public-health problem. Timely diagnostics are needed for high-risk patients. Several methods have been used for RSV detection but not suitable for on-site detection due to the requirement of specialized laboratories and expensive equipment.

Methods: We developed a convenient, rapid and low-cost method of nucleic acids (NA) extraction based on cellulose paper, which could extract NA from nasopharyngeal swabs (NPSs) within 1 min. This extraction method was integrated with fluorescence convection polymerase chain reaction (CPCR), which easily affordable and easy-to-use NA detection of the RSV in 33 min.

Results: The developed cellulose-based NA purification combine with CPCR (CP-CPCR) reliably detected as little as 0.01 TCID/mL of RSV cultures. CP-CPCR performance was tested further using NPSs: it showed sensitivity of 100% and a specificity of 100% compared with traditional extraction and amplification methods.

Conclusions: Our evaluation confirmed high specificity, sensitivity and efficient of the CP-CPCR, which can be used widely for RSV testing in resource-limited settings.