Reliance Life Sciences has developed an RT-PCR (real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction) kit that will be able to diagnose COVID-19 infection in just about 2 hours. Currently, the test for the qualitative detection of nucleic acid from SARS-CoV-2 takes up to 24 hours for the results.
The computational biologists as Reliance Life Sciences, which is a subsidiary of billionaire Mukesh Ambani- run Reliance Industries Ltd., had analyzed more than 100 genomes of SARS-CoV-2 sequenced in the country and had designed unique RT-PCR primers for developing the qualitative RT-PCR kit for COVID detection.
About Reliance developed RT-PCR kit:
According to Reliance Life Sciences, the RT-PCR kit is a complete indigenous development by R&D scientists who have been working at the firm. The firm further added that one of the biggest advantages of this kit is that it is extremely simple to use and uses readily available simple reagents and primers that can be synthesized in India. The diagnosis time of the test is approximately 2 hours.
RT-PCR kit by Reliance: Key Highlights
• RT-PCR kit developed by the scientists at Reliance Life Sciences has been named R-Green Kit and has been technically validated by ICMR for the satisfactory performance.
• The validation by ICMR does not approve or disapprove the kit design as well as it does not certify the user-friendliness.
• The kit has been able to detect the presence of R-gene, E-gene, RdRp gene of the SARS-CoV-2 virus with Actin as an internal control.
• According to the ICMR (Indian Council of Medical Research), the kit developed by Reliance has shown the 98.8 percent specificity and 98.7 percent sensitivity.
Death rate due to COVID may reduce by end of 2020: Study by Reliance Life Sciences
A separate study done by the Reliance Life Sciences has indicated that the death rate due to Coronavirus may significantly reduce by the end of 2020.
Earlier, the study has shown that the mutation occurrence of structural and non-structural proteins of SARS-CoV-2 form more than 7,000 genome sequences of the SARS-CoV-2 virus from 49 countries.
Statistical analysis has shown an inverse correlation between the mutation rates of 2 proteins Surface glycoprotein (S) and NSP6 with the death rate. It is predicted that the mutation of these two proteins will grow constantly while the death rate will drop below 0.5% by the end of 2020 in clusters in I countries (India and Bangladesh).
It was further observed that the cluster II country (United States of America) mutation rate of NSP6 and S Proteins have been lower than Cluster I and Cluster III (Australia and New Zealand).
