IIT-Guwahati uses clay particles to develop affordable COVID-19 testing method

NEW DELHI: Researchers on the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Guwahati, have discovered that clay particles work together in another way within the presence of SARS-CoV-2 — the virus that causes COVID-19 — a discovering they used for creating a easy, affordable testing various.The method developed appears at how shortly particles of clay settle in a salt water resolution containing the virus.“Due to changes in inter-particle forces of clay in the presence of the virus, the sedimentation rate of the clay-electrolyte system changed,” the authors wrote within the examine revealed within the journal Applied Clay Science.The findings supply a “simple and affordable” various to the complicated, costly strategies presently used for detecting SARS-CoV-2, the crew stated.“Current methods, such as Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR), are highly sensitive but time consuming and require heavy equipment. Similarly, the antigen testing is fast but lacks accuracy, while antibody testing is used after the infection has occurred, highlighting limitations at various levels,” lead writer T.V. Bharat, professor at IIT Guwahati‘s division of civil engineering, stated.Further, most of the presently obtainable strategies should not sensible in resource-limited settings or throughout large-scale outbreaks. The COVID-19 pandemic revealed a vital hole in how we detect and monitor viral infections, he added.For the examine, the researchers used Bentonite clay as a result of its distinctive chemical construction permits pollution and heavy metals to be simply absorbed.“Previous studies have shown that clay particles can bind with viruses and bacteriophages, making it a promising material for virus detection,” Bharat stated.The crew checked out particles of Bentonite clay interacted with viral materials in a saline resolution.They discovered {that a} Coronavirus surrogate and Infectious Bronchitis Virus (IBV) bind to the negatively charged clay surfaces at a managed room temperature and impartial pH of seven.Bharat stated the examine affords a “faster, more affordable, and an accurate” various method — “as simple as watching sand settle in water” — to present strategies, paving the way in which for a greater illness monitoring and remedy methods, particularly throughout pandemics.The method additionally “holds great promise for improving how viral outbreaks are monitored and controlled, especially in regions where expensive lab equipment and trained personnel are not readily available,” the lead writer stated.