Here’s how bureaucracy slows down the search for Covid variants. The complaint of prof. Broccoli
In Italy there are rapid tests to detect Covid variants, but they cannot be used because they are non-refundable. The denunciation of the virologist Francesco Broccolo (University of Milan Bicocca), director of the Cerba laboratory in Milan
Too much bureaucracy.
The fight against the Covid-19 pandemic in Italy is also held back by too much bureaucracy.
The rapid tests to identify variants of the Sars-CoV-2 virus have been ready for over a month, but are not used because they are still non-refundable, as reported by virologist Francesco Broccolo, of the University of Milan Bicocca, and director of the Cerba laboratory of Milan. All the details.
TESTS READY, BUT UNUSABLE
The rapid tests developed "to identify new mutations critical for the recognition of antibodies and consequently update vaccines and therapies based on monoclonal antibodies", have been ready for over a month, but cannot be used by laboratories because they are not yet reimbursable , says virologist Francesco Broccolo.
USEFUL TESTS IN THESE WEEKS
The use of tests could make a difference in these weeks: "at this moment it would be necessary to increase the screening tests that allow to detect only the presence and some even to identify a precise variant, discriminating it from the others", explains Broccolo, specifying that the tests allow a first screening on the swabs tested positive for the molecular test, indicating the samples for which the classical sequencing must be done to have the definitive confirmation.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE TEST
The test was developed by virologist Francesco Broccolo, in collaboration with an Italian company, and is simple to use: it is based, reports Ansa, on the same technique used for the analysis of samples collected with swabs, i.e. the chain reaction polymerase (Pcr) or based on temperature analysis (melting analysis) or integrated with the use of probes for the recognition of specific mutations.
THE OPERATION
"Each variant has a modality that distinguishes it and it is therefore possible to identify them by looking directly for these characteristics, even before sequencing". The probe that will have to detect the English variant will search for the 69-70 and 501 mutations, while the Brazilian and South African variants are detectable by the 484 mutation of the S gene of the Spike protein.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/sanita/ecco-come-la-burocrazia-rallenta-la-ricerca-delle-varianti-covid-la-denuncia-del-prof-broccolo/ on Sun, 14 Mar 2021 17:00:22 +0000.