India’s own RT-PCR kit for COVID-19 developed by Reliance

By Rahul Vaimal, Associate Editor
  • Follow author on
COVID-19-Testing
Representational Image

Reliance Life Sciences, a subsidiary of India’s Reliance Industries Limited has reportedly developed an RT-PCR kit named R-Green Kit that promises to diagnose COVID-19 infection in about 2 hours.

According to the sources, Scientists at Reliance Life Sciences analyzed over 100 genomes of SARS-CoV-2 sequenced in India and unique RT-PCR primers were developed for the production of a quantitative Real-Time PCR (RT-PCR) package for COVID-19 detection.

Currently, it took up to 24 hours for the RT-PCR to diagnose COVID-19, which is widely considered as the standard method of diagnosing diseases.

As per the reports, the R-Green Kit (SARS-COV-2 real-time PCR) was technically validated for satisfactory performance by ICMR. The validation phase of ICMR does not allow/refuse the design of the package and does not certify user-friendliness.

Sources state that the kit was able to identify the e-gene, R-gene and RDRP genes of the SARS-COV-2 virus, which functions as an internal monitor.

The package shows 98.7 percent sensitivity and 98.8 percent precision, as per ICMR reports.

This kit is a fully innovative production by research and development scientists working at the company. The major advantage of this kit is that it uses simple reactors and primers that can be integrated in India that are easy to use and readily available and also the time for the diagnosis of the disease, which helps to diagnosis COVID-19 simply and more effectively, said the reliable sources.

Recently, a study was conducted by the scientist in the Reliance Life Sciences about the COVID-19 and they found that the death rate for pandemic may significantly reduce by the end of 2020. The study showed the occurrence of structural and non-structural SARS-CoV-2 protein mutations in more than 7,000 SARS-CoV-2 virus genome sequences from 49 countries.

According to the study published in the Scientific Journal of Biology, Statistical analysis found that the mutation rates of two NSP6 proteins and Surface Glycoprotein (S) were inversely associated with the death rate. Mutations of these two proteins have been expected to rise rapidly, while the death rate will drop below 0.5% by the end of 2020 in certain areas.

YOU MAY LIKE