RESUMEN
The emergence of the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 has led to a pandemic infecting more than two million people worldwide in less than four months, posing a major threat to healthcare systems. This is compounded by the shortage of available tests causing numerous healthcare workers to unnecessarily self-isolate. We provide a roadmap instructing how a research institute can be repurposed in the midst of this crisis, in collaboration with partner hospitals and an established diagnostic laboratory, harnessing existing expertise in virus handling, robotics, PCR, and data science to derive a rapid, high throughput diagnostic testing pipeline for detecting SARS-CoV-2 in patients with suspected COVID-19. The pipeline is used to detect SARS-CoV-2 from combined nose-throat swabs and endotracheal secretions/ bronchoalveolar lavage fluid. Notably, it relies on a series of in-house buffers for virus inactivation and the extraction of viral RNA, thereby reducing the dependency on commercial suppliers at times of global shortage. We use a commercial RT-PCR assay, from BGI, and results are reported with a bespoke online web application that integrates with the healthcare digital system. This strategy facilitates the remote reporting of thousands of samples a day with a turnaround time of under 24 hours, universally applicable to laboratories worldwide.
RESUMEN
Dried blood spots (DBS) on filter paper have been used in human medicine since the 1960s, predominantly for screening in-borne metabolic disorders and more recently, for toxicology. Despite its 50-year existence, this technology has not been adopted by veterinarians for routine diagnoses and research. We have validated a novel DBS analytical procedure for the routine measurement of toxic heavy metals using 50 µL of whole blood on a single DBS by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). Targeted heavy metals are arsenic, cadmium, mercury, lead, selenium and thallium. The limits of quantitation (LOQ) on DBS are: arsenic 1.7 µg/L, cadmium 4.0 µg/L, mercury 13.7 µg/L, lead 13.3 µg/L, selenium 6.3 µg/L and thallium 1.5 µg/L. These LOQs suffice for routine diagnoses of heavy metal intoxication in domesticated and wildlife species as well as for basic, applied and epidemiological studies. The technique is ideal for population studies involving investigations of wildlife exposure to heavy metals and other environmental pollutants. The small blood volume involved (50 µL) makes it feasible to study small animals (birds, reptiles, amphibians and small mammals) that were previously excluded, or difficult to study due to the relatively large sample volumes required by current gold standard blood collection techniques.
