Iasi: UAIC researchers discovered a fast method of detection of different pathogens, applicable for COVID-19 as well

Researchers from the Alexandru Ioan Cuza University in Iasi announced that they discovered a method of rapid detection for different pathogens, applicable also for COVID-19.

According to a post on the website of the Alexandru Ioan Cuza University in Iasi, a group of researchers with the Molecular and Cellular Biophysics Laboratory of the Faculty of Physics (the Institute for Interdisciplinary Research) has introduced, since 2019, a method for early detection of infections produced by pathogen, bacterial or viral agents based on the rapid detection of short fragments of nucleic acids.

This method could be the base for building portable devices, cheaper and easier to use than current ones, useful in detection in mobile units of fragments of nucleic acids, with potential uses in different social situations, including the one generated by COVID-19.

"In this sense two modern technologies have been combined, namely the individual detection and investigation of molecules with the help of protein nanopores, as well as the more efficient hybridization offered by a particular species of polynucleotides, called 'eptide nucleic acids - PNA'. The results obtained, validated in the scientific community, demonstrate not only the possibility of detection of nano-molar concentrations of short nucleic acids (10-15 nucleotide sequences), in real time (an almost impossible goal for current technologies), but also the possibility of immediate highlighting and also in real time of eventual mutations in the respective nucleotide sequences," Tudor Luchian stated.

According to the post, the fundamental scientific results obtained by lecturer Loredana Mereuta, Ph.D., scientific researcher Alina Asandei, Ph.D., scientific researcher Irina Schiopu, Ph.D., and professor Tudor Luchian, Ph.D., were validated by the international scientific community through their publishing in major publications of the American Chemical Society.