RE: Paraytec, Sheffield Uni and Aptamer12 Mar 2021 11:29
wolves read the RnS properly ....
The current gold standard for estimation of viral load continues to be laboratory-based PCR tests. However, these detect viral RNA levels and not necessarily the presence of infectious virions, which means that many patients test positive, long after they are no longer infectious. Paraytec has thus adopted an additional comparator test developed by the University of Sheffield, to verify the presence of intact virus particles. This involves ultracentrifugation and high-resolution fluorescence microscopy to independently verify the presence of virions in clinical samples.
In parallel to the sample processing described above, the Paraytec team has been using isolated lab-grown virus to optimise the operational sensitivity of its instrument for the detection of pre-symptomatic and early-stage symptomatic virus levels. It believes it will be able to confirm, within a period of four weeks, a lower limit of detection of 1,000 virions per millilitre of sample, also a market-leading value.