[en] Since the emergence of COVID-19 in late 2019, the gold standard in testing for the disease has been a nuclear-derived technique: real-time reverse transcription–polymerase chain reaction, or real-time RT–PCR. Fast and accurate, real-time RT–PCR has been critical in detecting, tracking and studying COVID-19. But what is it and how does it work? Let us explain.

[en] Since the emergence of COVID-19 in late 2019, the gold standard in testing for the disease has been a nuclear-derived technique: real-time reverse transcription–polymerase chain reaction, or real-time RT–PCR. Fast and accurate, real-time RT–PCR has been critical in detecting, tracking and studying COVID-19. But what is it and how does it work? Let us explain.

[en] Since the emergence of COVID-19 in late 2019, the gold standard in testing for the disease has been a nuclear-derived technique: real-time reverse transcription–polymerase chain reaction, or real-time RT–PCR. Fast and accurate, real-time RT–PCR has been critical in detecting, tracking and studying COVID-19. But what is it and how does it work? Let us explain.

[en] Since the emergence of COVID-19 in late 2019, the gold standard in testing for the disease has been a nuclear-derived technique: real-time reverse transcription–polymerase chain reaction, or real-time RT–PCR. Fast and accurate, real-time RT–PCR has been critical in detecting, tracking and studying COVID-19. But what is it and how does it work? Let us explain.

[en] The primordial days of the COVID-19 outbreak led to a rapid surge in demand — and subsequent shortage — of many consumables, from household goods and protective equipment to the ingredients and substances needed to test for the virus. As the world grappled with the newfound need to mass-test for COVID-19, laboratories turned to real-time reverse transcription–polymerase chain reaction (real-time RT–PCR). Real time RT–PCR is the most accurate laboratory method to detect, track and study COVID-19 (see page 8 to learn more), however, its widespread use strained resources and led some laboratories to seek more readily available and cheaper alternatives. A study to test the performance and quality of some of these alternative resources was recently conducted by the IAEA and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), in collaboration with the Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety (AGES). Its results have implications for the ongoing fight against COVID-19 in developing countries and beyond.

[en] The primordial days of the COVID-19 outbreak led to a rapid surge in demand — and subsequent shortage — of many consumables, from household goods and protective equipment to the ingredients and substances needed to test for the virus. As the world grappled with the newfound need to mass-test for COVID-19, laboratories turned to real-time reverse transcription–polymerase chain reaction (real-time RT–PCR). Real time RT–PCR is the most accurate laboratory method to detect, track and study COVID-19 (see page 8 to learn more), however, its widespread use strained resources and led some laboratories to seek more readily available and cheaper alternatives. A study to test the performance and quality of some of these alternative resources was recently conducted by the IAEA and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), in collaboration with the Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety (AGES). Its results have implications for the ongoing fight against COVID-19 in developing countries and beyond.

[en] The primordial days of the COVID-19 outbreak led to a rapid surge in demand — and subsequent shortage — of many consumables, from household goods and protective equipment to the ingredients and substances needed to test for the virus. As the world grappled with the newfound need to mass-test for COVID-19, laboratories turned to real-time reverse transcription–polymerase chain reaction (real-time RT–PCR). Real time RT–PCR is the most accurate laboratory method to detect, track and study COVID-19 (see page 8 to learn more), however, its widespread use strained resources and led some laboratories to seek more readily available and cheaper alternatives. A study to test the performance and quality of some of these alternative resources was recently conducted by the IAEA and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), in collaboration with the Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety (AGES). Its results have implications for the ongoing fight against COVID-19 in developing countries and beyond.

[en] The primordial days of the COVID-19 outbreak led to a rapid surge in demand — and subsequent shortage — of many consumables, from household goods and protective equipment to the ingredients and substances needed to test for the virus. As the world grappled with the newfound need to mass-test for COVID-19, laboratories turned to real-time reverse transcription–polymerase chain reaction (real-time RT–PCR). Real time RT–PCR is the most accurate laboratory method to detect, track and study COVID-19 (see page 8 to learn more), however, its widespread use strained resources and led some laboratories to seek more readily available and cheaper alternatives. A study to test the performance and quality of some of these alternative resources was recently conducted by the IAEA and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), in collaboration with the Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety (AGES). Its results have implications for the ongoing fight against COVID-19 in developing countries and beyond.

[en] The primordial days of the COVID-19 outbreak led to a rapid surge in demand — and subsequent shortage — of many consumables, from household goods and protective equipment to the ingredients and substances needed to test for the virus. As the world grappled with the newfound need to mass-test for COVID-19, laboratories turned to real-time reverse transcription–polymerase chain reaction (real-time RT–PCR). Real time RT–PCR is the most accurate laboratory method to detect, track and study COVID-19 (see page 8 to learn more), however, its widespread use strained resources and led some laboratories to seek more readily available and cheaper alternatives. A study to test the performance and quality of some of these alternative resources was recently conducted by the IAEA and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), in collaboration with the Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety (AGES). Its results have implications for the ongoing fight against COVID-19 in developing countries and beyond.

[en] Highlights: • A novel colorimetric strategy for sensitive DNA detection based on AuNPs assemblies induced by PCR product. • The proposed strategy avoids the denaturation of PCR product to allow efficient hybridization with AuNPs-DNA probes. • The sensitivity of this method is significantly improved, due to PCR amplification and the assemblies of AuNPs. • The universality of the method is likely to be good, any target DNA can be analyzed with the same AuNPs-DNA probes. - Abstract: We developed a novel strategy for rapid colorimetric detection of specific DNA sequence based on gold nanoparticles assemblies induced by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) product. In the presence of target DNA, the two DNA-functionalized AuNP probes selectively hybridized with the prohibited nucleic acid segments of two primers owing to the zipping off of the hairpin structures during PCR process, resulted in the aggregation of AuNPs with a concomitant color change from red to blue-purple. It is a convenient and universal method for sensitive DNA detection with no need for any further post-treatment of the PCR products. Most importantly, our method showed a low limit of detection (LOD) of 4.3 fM with a wide range of target DNA from 16 fM to 1.6 nM. Owing to the versatility and low cost, the proposed strategy could be extremely useful for a wide range of applications, providing a promising tool for rapid disease diagnostics and gene sequencing.