The vision of point-of-care PCR tests for the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond

Highlights

• Recently there is a boom in development of portable microfluidic based system for SARS-CoV-2 molecular diagnostics.

• Most of those techniques approved by US FDA is based on a reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR).

• Drawback of the RT-PCR methods such as sample preparation to remove PCR inhibitors and perform sample preconcentration.

Abstract

Infectious diseases, such as the most recent case of coronavirus disease 2019, have brought the prospect of point-of-care (POC) diagnostic tests into the spotlight. A rapid, accurate, low-cost, and easy-to-use test in the field could stop epidemics before they develop into full-blown pandemics. Unfortunately, despite all the advances, it still does not exist. Here, we critically review the limited number of prototypes demonstrated to date that is based on a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and has come close to fulfill this vision. We summarize the requirements for the POC-PCR tests and then go on to discuss the PCR product-detection methods, the integration of their functional components, the potential applications, and other practical issues related to the implementation of lab-on-a-chip technologies. We conclude our review with a discussion of the latest findings on nucleic acid-based diagnosis.