• Manoucher Teymouri, Samaneh Mollazadeh, Hamed Mortazavi, Zari Naderi Ghale-Noie, Vahideh Keyvani, Farzaneh Aghababaei, Michael R Hamblin, Ghasem Abbaszadeh-Goudarzi, Hossein Pourghadamyari, HashemianSeyed Mohammad RezaSMRChronic Respiratory Diseases Research Center (CRDRC), National Research Institute of Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases (NRITLD), Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. Electronic address: smrhashemian@sbm, and Hamed Mirzaei.
• Natural Products and Medicinal Plants Research Center, North Khorasan University of Medical Sciences, Bojnurd, Iran.
• Pathol. Res. Pract. 2021 May 1; 221: 153443.

AbstractSince the outbreak of the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), the control of virus spread has remained challenging given the pitfalls of the current diagnostic tests. Nevertheless, RNA amplification techniques have been the gold standard among other diagnostic methods for monitoring clinical samples for the presence of the virus. In the current paper, we review the shortcomings and strengths of RT-PCR (real-time polymerase chain reaction) techniques for diagnosis of coronavirus disease (COVID)-19. We address the repercussions of false-negative and false-positive rates encountered in the test, summarize approaches to improve the overall sensitivity of this method. We discuss the barriers to the widespread use of the RT-PCR test, and some technical advances, such as RT-LAMP (reverse-transcriptase-loop mediated isothermal amplification). We also address how other molecular techniques, such as immunodiagnostic tests can be used to avoid incorrect interpretation of RT-PCR tests.Copyright © 2021 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.

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