rapid tests for coronavirus, showing the result after 5 minutes, 20 minutes or half an hour, cannot be used for the diagnosis of asymptomatic patients and those who had been infected only recently
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the So-called rapid tests for coronavirus, showing the result after 5 minutes, 20 minutes or half an hour, cannot be used for the diagnosis of asymptomatic patients and those who could have been infected only recently. These “quick” tests are based on finding antibodies to the virus, and they are produced when a person is recovering or, at least, the disease has already begun. This rapid test can be false negative up to that time, as the body will have antibodies. Its effectiveness depends on the condition of human immune system and how it copes with the production of antibodies.
If the patient undergoes some form of immunotherapy, or he just has a weakened immune system, then the test may be ineffective.
rapid tests can be a cheap and good way of detecting infection, but they measure the body’s response to the already developed disease, and not suitable for early diagnosis and for the diagnosis of people who do not get sick themselves, but are carriers of the infection.
here is another type of test PCR (uses polymerase chain reaction) principleialno different from the rapid tests based on direct detection of virus RNA. This is the test that should be applied when testing the population to find the carriers of the virus and to stop the epidemic, says the Czech molecular geneticist and virologist Sonia Pekov, who heads the laboratory Tilia Laboratories, which was diagnosed one of the first in the Czech Republic cases of the coronavirus.
According to Pitch, SARS virus-CоV-2, as it turned out, behaves very unusually. He has a great ability to mutate. Under mutation can change the genome, the detection of which target the initial test. SARS-CоV-2 is different from the “normal” coronaviruses primarily noncoding regulatory region (part of the genetic code, which is not directly responsible for protein synthesis).
it has gene sequences that differ from sequences in the regulatory region of the coronavirus that lives on bats, despite the fact that the “body” of the virus, the structural genes are the same as the virus of bats. This new virus human regulatory region as if slightly modified, which may be due to its very high ability to reproduce. Because of the fact that the virus multiplies so quickly, it is so contagious.
With that, probably linked to its high ability to mutate very quickly appear strains, which had not seen before.
So, the Czech biologist does not exclude that the current viruses may have an artificial origin. “He is behaving very unusual. In the world there are a finite number of viruses that infect people. We usually can symptoms guess about which virus causes it. Of course, not 100%, but we can say: if the symptoms look like this, then it is likely some of the influenza viruses, when diarrhea is another type of the virus when the rash we are looking for the herpes viruses. So when we know that the disease is caused by coronavirus, it budet a certain period. But this coronavirus is a very different picture, it’s like a new type of disease,” quoted Pekova “Radio Liberty”.
“When the clinical picture of the virus is so different from other viruses of the same type, it is at least strange. As for his genetic code – I have devoted many years to molecular biology and genetics, have been cloning and used different parts of the virus genetic engineering is a very common practice. When I saw this sequence (regulatory region), I immediately thought she didn’t look very natural,” – said geneticist.
Commenting on the article of the American scientists in the journal Nature Medicine, in which he argued that the artificial origin of this virus completely eliminated, Pekov said that it was only on the structural genes of this virus and there is not a word mentioned its regulatory region.
“If we spoke only of structural genes, I would not have thought that this virus is something wrong. But you need to look at the whole genome, not excluding from consideration other parts, and perhaps there we will find the answer… it seems to Me that the change in the genetic code of this virus is located in this regulatory region,” says Czech geneticist.
