British scientists have successfully applied a new viral detection technique to polio, enabling speedier results in afflicted countries, it has been announced.
A major global research project has shown that Direct molecular Detection and Nanopore Sequencing (DDNS) can successfully be used on polio, researchers have reported.
The project, based in the Democratic Republic of Congo, showed that DDNS reduced the costs and delays of transport and testing of viral samples from 42 days to 19 days and achieved 99% accuracy. This was because testing took place in the DRC rather than having to be done in specialist laboratories around the world.
The project was backed by the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, Imperial College London and the University of Edinburgh together with World Health Organization laboratories.
The findings have been reported in Nature Microbiology.
Javier Martin, principal scientist in Virology at the MHRA, said:
“We are standing at a delicate and pivotal moment for the eradication of polio. While vaccination programmes have seen polio disappear in many countries, the delayed detection of outbreaks poses a major threat to those efforts.
“By implementing detection methods such as DDNS, we can identify where outbreaks are and which polio strain is present much more quickly, allowing us to act at the earliest opportunity.
“This is the result of years of work, collaborating with our partners. Together, we will continue to build on this research and support countries at risk of outbreaks to implement DDNS testing to help make polio a disease of the past.”
Professor Placide Mbala-Kingebeni, of the DRC Institut National de Recherche Biomédicale, said: “Collaboration and training with our partners has empowered the local team not only to master and confidently carry out this new technique but also to transfer the knowledge and skills to other African countries where poliovirus outbreaks are reported regularly.”
Sensitive poliovirus detection using nested PCR and nanopore sequencing: a prospective validation study Nature Microbiology 17 August 2023
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