Officials are searching for ways to contain coronavirus morbidity rates, while preventing lockdowns in order to keep economies open as the COVID-19 epidemic lingers on. Amid their efforts, experts may have come up with a solution that comes in the form of a rapid breathalyzer test.
The solution comes from a team led by researchers based in Haifa, in collaboration with researchers in Wuhan, China. While a larger cohort study is still needed to validate the results of their findings, which have proven to be mostly accurate, the test is envisioned to be used in the future as a screening tool used at the entrance of airports, shopping centers and other public places or even at private homes, like temperature measuring devices that are used today. The test could significantly reduce transmission of COVID-19 in public spaces, reduce the burden on number of unneeded confirmatory tests and lower the burden on the hospitals, and has the potential to be used in future outbreaks of new diseases in the future.
Leading the team are F.M.W Academic Chair Professor Hossam Haick and Dr. Yoav Broza of the Technion Faculty of Chemical Engineering and Russell Berrie Nanotechnology Institute. Their study has been published in in the journal ACS Nano and the technology is to be developed for the market by the company Nanose Medical.
The test could significantly reduce the rate of transmission, as epidemiological data show that the pandemic is propagated through "local community transmission." This means that the spread of infection cannot be accurately traced back to a source, creating a need for a non-invasive, rapid, inexpensive testing method to screen COVID-19 positive individuals, especially as pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic carriers could be traveling in public spaces, such as shopping centers and airports, spreading the disease.
The testing device is an intelligent nanotechnology that can rapidly detect COVID-19 from specific volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in exhaled breath.
The efficacy of the COVID-19 breath analyzer testing device, which is comprised of a nanomaterial-based sensor array, was successfully validated in March 2020 by a preliminary case-control clinical study in Wuhan, China, states the published study in ACS publications.The study included 49 confirmed COVID-19 patients, 58 healthy controls and 33 non-COVID lung infection controls. COVID-19 patients were sampled twice: during the active disease and after the recovery. Analysis of the results of the test showed great discrimination between the different groups.
The training and test set data exhibited 94% and 76% accuracy respectively in differentiating patients from controls as well as 90% and 95% accuracy in differentiating between patients with COVID-19 and patients with other lung infections. Ultimately the test was proved to detect disease-specific biomarkers in exhaled breath with 92% accuracy, 100% sensitivity, and 84% specificity.
While further validation studies are needed, Prof. Haick's test could reduce morbidity rates, in addition to lowering the burden on hospitals.
Currently, COVID-19 tests must be shipped off to a laboratory and require time consuming procedures to determine results. As a result, there is a delay of several hours to several days between when the tests are taken and results are obtained. The delay, which is exacerbated by the overloading of laboratories, increases the chance of further spread, especially from pre-symptomatic individuals who may not adhere to quarantine.
Moreover, Prof. Haick believes this approach can serve as a platform for a rapidly available diagnostic tool that can be used in the case of a new disease outbreak.