Introduction: Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is the cause of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), a disease that quickly spread into a pandemic. As such, management of the COVID-19 pandemic is deemed necessary, and it can be achieved by using reliable diagnostic tests for SARS-CoV-2. The gold standard for the diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 is a molecular detection test using the reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction technique (rt-PCR), which is characterized by various disadvantages in contrast with the self-taken nasal rapid antigen tests that produce results faster, have lower costs and do not require specialized personnel. Therefore, the usefulness of self-taken rapid antigen tests is indisputable in disease management, facilitating both the health system and the examinees. Our systematic review aims to access the diagnostic accuracy of the self-taken nasal rapid antigen tests.
Methods: This systematic review was conducted following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines, and the Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies 2 (QUADAS-2) tool was used to assess the risk of bias in the included studies. All the studies included in this systematic review were found after searching the two databases, Scopus and PubΜed. All but original articles were excluded from this systematic review, while all the studies concerning self-taken rapid antigen tests with a nasal sample and using rt-PCR as a reference test were included. Meta-analysis results and plots were obtained using RevMan software and the MetaDTA website.
Results: All 22 studies included in this meta-analysis demonstrated a specificity of self-taken rapid antigen tests greater than 98%, which exceeds the minimum required yield for the diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2, according to the WHO. Notwithstanding, the sensitivity varies (from 40% to 98.7%), which makes them in some cases unsuitable for the diagnosis of positive cases. In the majority of the studies, the minimum required performance set by the WHO was achieved, which is 80% compared with rt-PCR tests. The pooled sensitivity of self-taken nasal rapid antigen tests was calculated as 91.1% and the pooled specificity was 99.5%.
Conclusions: In conclusion, self-taken nasal rapid antigen tests have many advantages over rt-PCR tests, such as those related to the rapid reading of the results and their low cost. They also have considerable specificity and some self-taken rapid antigen test kits also have remarkable sensitivity. Consequently, self-taken rapid antigen tests have a wide range of utility but are not able to completely replace rt-PCR tests.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/life13020281 | DOI Listing |
Infect Dis Clin Microbiol
December 2024
Department of Medical Microbiology, Bursa Uludağ University School of Medicine, Bursa, Türkiye.
Objective: The study compared the mö-screen Corona Antigen Test (Qiagen, Germany) with RT-PCR in suspected COVID-19 patients.
Materials And Methods: Two hundred combined oro-nasopharyngeal swabs were collected from patients with suspected COVID-19 to evaluate the analytical performance of the mö-screen Corona Antigen Test compared to qualitative real-time reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) in symptomatic patients.
Results: The mö-screen Corona Antigen Test showed an overall agreement with a sensitivity of 100%, a specificity of 100%, a positive predictive value (PPV) of 100%, and a negative predictive value (NPV) of 100%.
Theranostics
January 2025
Stomatological Hospital, School of Stomatology, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, 510280, Guangdong, China.
T cell receptor-engineered T (TCR-T) cell therapies are at the forefront of cancer immunotherapy, offering a transformative approach that significantly enhances the ability of T cells to recognize and eliminate cancer cells. This innovative method involves genetically modifying TCRs to increase their affinity for tumor-specific antigens. While these enhancements improve the ability of T cells to recognize and bind to antigens on cancer cells, rigorous assessment of specificity remains crucial to ensure safety and targeted responses.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNanotheranostics
January 2025
Translational Research Laboratory, Department of Experimental Medicine and Biotechnology, Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh, India.
Pleural tuberculosis (pTB) is a diagnostic challenge because of its non-specific clinical features, lack of accurate diagnostic tools and paucibacillary nature of the disease. We, here describe the development of a novel magnetic nanoparticle antibody-conjugate and aptamer-based assay (MNp-Ab-Ap assay) targeting 4 different (. ) antigens (GlcB, MPT51, MPT64 and CFP-10) for pTB diagnosis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFZhongguo Shi Yan Xue Ye Xue Za Zhi
December 2024
Department of Laboratory Medicine, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, Sichuan Province, China.
Objective: To summarize and analyze the clinical features of blastic plasmacytoid dendritic cell neoplasm (BPDCN), so as to enhance the understanding of this disease.
Methods: The clinical manifestations, immunophenotype, pathological features, treatment and prognosis of 11 cases of BPDCN were retrospectively analyzed.
Results: Among the 11 patients diagnosed with BPDCN, there were 8 males and 3 females, with a median age of 44 (6-81) years.
Cell Mol Immunol
January 2025
Department of Gastroenterology, Hepatology, Infectious Diseases and Endocrinology, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany.
The clinical use of cancer vaccines is hampered by the low magnitude of induced T-cell responses and the need for repetitive antigen stimulation. Here, we demonstrate that liposomal formulations with incorporated STING agonists are optimally suited to deliver peptide antigens to dendritic cells in vivo and to activate dendritic cells in secondary lymphoid organs. One week after liposomal priming, systemic administration of peptides and a costimulatory agonistic CD40 antibody enables ultrarapid expansion of T cells, resulting in massive expansion of tumor-specific T cells in the peripheral blood two weeks after priming.
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