In one exhalation
The new technology will be able to instantly detect infected COVID-19
Alexey Koretsky, Hi-tech+
Scientists from George Washington University in the USA has developed and patented a device that detects the presence of various gases in the air in real time. A small modification of the device, for which they have already been allocated a grant of $ 50 thousand, will allow them to teach him to react to the presence of SARS-CoV-2 virus particles in the exhaled air. If everything works out, it will be possible to accurately determine whether a person is infected or not using any smartphone just by breathing.
The portable device, which consists of conductors the size of a strand of hair and is covered with a thin layer of gold, was originally developed to determine the presence of various gases in the air, the Miniature Device Could Instantly Diagnose COVID-19, according to a press release.
The principle of its operation is quite simple: as soon as molecules of certain gases appear in the composition of the air, the gilded deposition of conductors react to them and the spectrum of light reflected by the device changes. Special software, which can be made in the form of an application, reads these changes and, based on the database of light correspondences embedded in it, shows the presence of molecules of a particular gas in the air.
Scientists led by Mona Zaglul decided that the device can also be used to detect coronavirus. To do this, the detector must be treated with a solution that contains proteins that bind to the virus. If a person is infected, the virus particles exhaled by him will bind to the coating of the device's conductors and cause optical changes in the light reflected by him. According to these changes, it will be possible to accurately diagnose infected COVID-19 in real time, even if they are at the very beginning of the incubation period and have not yet shown any symptoms of the disease.
Moreover, for such an accurate and fast diagnosis, laboratories and even doctors will not be needed in the future – a device and a smartphone will be enough.
The authors emphasize that although the device is based on a method that has already proven its effectiveness in determining gases, no one knows yet whether it will work with viral particles as accurately. The team will have to prove that adding a virus-binding coating to the conductors will work as intended.
If this stage is successfully passed, then it will be necessary to find out the accuracy of the device – to what minimum volume of virus particles it will react. There can be a variety of surprises here. Finally, the development team will have to figure out how the device will react to the presence of particles of other human coronaviruses in the exhaled air, of which there are already quite a lot and which do not cause such serious consequences as SARS-CoV-2. Fine-tuning the device to it can be a difficult task if the rest are successfully solved.
Taking into account all these factors, the imminent appearance of the device in the hands of doctors, if it even gets to the stage of commercialization, should not be expected. But if it appears, it will be able to revolutionize the early diagnosis of COVID-19 and will allow faster and more efficient interruption of infection chains.
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