Spit on him. Scientists have offered a quick test for coronavirus for a smartphone

Pharmacists from the University of Montreal, who are working on a COVID-19 screening method using a smartphone, say one sample of saliva is enough to test.

“This person will simply place a sample of saliva on a device connected to the phone and get the result in a few minutes”, – said Xavier Banky, professor of medicine at the University of Montreal.

A device that has proven effective in the laboratory but has not yet been tested in natural conditions will reduce the usual waiting time for the results of COVID-19 tests, and can also free up public health resources by early detection of asymptomatic carriers.

“Take, for example, a hospital employee who needs to go to work. If he or she gets a positive result, they can stay at home and avoid the inadvertent spread of the virus in a high-risk environment”, – Banky said.

Working with Plasmetrix from Montreal, a team of Professor Banky developed a prototype device. It is small – about five square centimeters, no more than a memory card reader that connects to the phone.

Technically, it is a miniature spectrometer that uses a visualization technique to detect the presence of a viral load in saliva. In a sample from an infected person, the camera’s glasses of the device can see from 100,000 to one million particles.

Now most screening tests for COVID-19 are based on samples sent to a microbiological laboratory, where the virus is detected by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). This method identifies the DNA segments of the virus after it multiplies.

“We take a different path, which consists indirectly recognizing the presence of the virus in the body without any chemical manipulation or extraction methods”, – said Banky, who developed the method along with graduate students Jordan Robert and Pierre Luke Latreil.

The process begins the same way as in a medical clinic: a cotton swab is inserted into the throat and nose of a subject to collect saliva containing the virus and antibody. Then the sample is placed in a test tube.

But after that, instead of sending the test tube to the laboratory, the user simply puts a drop of the mixture into the device connected to the phone. And after five minutes they get their result: positive or negative.

The technology uses tiny gold sticks that change color depending on the environment. “In saliva, nanorods acquire a color that a spectroscopic device can accurately photograph”, – Banky explained.

After the user receives the result, specialized personnel can conduct further analysis to determine the level of infection.