Recent Advances in Novel Lateral Flow Technologies for Detection of COVID-19.

The development of reliable and robust diagnostic tests is one of the most efficient methods to limit the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which is caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2). However, most laboratory diagnostics for COVID-19, such as enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), are expensive, time-consuming, and require highly trained professional operators. On the other hand, the lateral flow immunoassay (LFIA) is a simpler, cheaper device that can be operated by unskilled personnel easily. Unfortunately, the current technique has some limitations, mainly inaccuracy in detection. This review article aims to highlight recent advances in novel lateral flow technologies for detecting SARS-CoV-2 as well as innovative approaches to achieve highly sensitive and specific point-of-care testing. Lastly, we discuss future perspectives on how smartphones and Artificial Intelligence (AI) can be integrated to revolutionize disease detection as well as disease control and surveillance.

Recent biotechnological approaches for treatment of novel COVID-19: from bench to clinical trial.

The global spread of the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) and increasing rate of mortality among different countries has raised the global concern regarding this disease. This illness is able to infect human beings through person-to-person contact at an extremely high rate. World Health Organization proclaimed that COVID-19 disease is known as the sixth public health emergency of international concern (30 January 2020) and also as one pandemic (12 March 2020). Owing to the rapid outbreak of COVID-19 worldwide, health authorities focused on discovery of effective prevention and treatment techniques for this novel virus. To date, an effective drug for reliable treatment of COVID-19 has not been registered or introduced to the international community. This review aims to provide recently presented techniques and protocols for efficient treatment of COVID-19 and investigate its morphology and treatment/prevention approaches, among which usage of antiviral drugs, anti-malarial drugs, corticosteroids, and traditional medicines, biotechnological drugs (e.g. combination of HCQ and azithromycin, remdesivir, interferons, novaferon, interferon-alpha-1b, thymosin, and monoclonal antibodies) can be mentioned.