CovidArray: A Microarray-Based Assay with High Sensitivity for the Detection of Sars-Cov-2 in Nasopharyngeal Swabs

A new coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) caused the current disease (Covid-19) epidemic. Reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) is used as gold standard for clinical detection of SARS-CoV-2. Under ideal conditions, RT-qPCR Covid-19 assays have analytical sensitivity and specificity greater than 95%. However, when sample panel enlarged including asymptomatic individuals, decreases false negatives are reported. Moreover, requires up to 3–6 h with most time involved in RNA extraction from swab samples. We introduce CovidArray, a microarray-based assay, detect SARS-CoV-2 markers N1 N2 nasopharyngeal swabs. The method based on solid-phase hybridization fluorescently-labeled amplicons upon reverse transcription. This approach combines physical-optical properties silicon substrate surface chemistry coat obtain diagnostic tool great sensitivity. Furthermore, we an innovative approach, RNAGEM, extract purify viral less 15 min. correctly assigned 12 swabs, previously analyzed by RT-qPCR. Thanks CovidArray were able identify false-negative sample. first DNA assay genes Its high RNAGEM allows reduction both amount results total analysis about 2 h.