Working principle and reliability of rapid diagnostic kits used during COVID-19 outbreak

Asst. Prof. Dr. Erkay Özgör, Rectorate Coordinator of Cyprus International University (CIU) stated that the reliability of the rapid diagnosis kits that came to the agenda with the COVID-19 outbreak has been discussed, and gave information about the working principle and reliability of the kits.

It was expressed that the rapid diagnosis kits are products that are developed for the rapid diagnosis of disease factors, immune products or metabolic products in both humans and living creatures. Also, many diseases are quickly diagnosed without the need for long and costly analyses in the laboratory environment.

Asst. Prof. Dr. Özgör stated that the working principle of rapid diagnostic kits is based on the colorimetric ELIZA method: “the causative agent of the disease to be detected and development of antibodies that can only be recognized bind to a specific antigen with the placement of blood, saliva, etc. on a long line-shaped strip to the diagnostic kit, in one example show whether there is the disease or not”.

It was reminded that in some cases, products that recognize the immunoglobulin produced against the disease agent, such as Coronavirus diagnostic kits, were developed and used in diagnostic kits. It was also explained that the principle of the emergence of a colored product attached to the antibody during antigen-antibody binding was applied to be visible.

Long-term studies have been carried out to develop rapid diagnostic kits, and these studies aim to develop agent-specific antibodies that can determine the causative agent.

Özgör explained that the antibody to detect this disease factor is capable of binding to an antigen present in the blood or other bodily fluids and this reduces the reliability of the diagnostic kit; so, laboratory analyses should be performed to support the rapid diagnostic kits and confirm the outcome.

It was mentioned that the problem in the diagnostic kits developed specifically for the suddenly emerging COVID-19 agent is that there was not enough time and studies in the development of the product would not give 100% accurate results completely for this virus. Therefore, the rapid diagnosis kits produced in this process gave approximate results and the results obtained did not bear certain acceptance.

He underlined that the molecular detection studies in which the genetic material of the virus is incubated in the laboratory environment should be carried out to obtain the accurate results in the diagnosis of diseases that do not have the opportunity to work for a long time. Özgör said, “It should be planned to develop products with high reliability that would cost less and work more rapidly in the future.”

He also stated that the outbreaks are likely to be taken under control with the budgets that both scientific institutions and state institutions will devote to scientific studies.