ArticleClinical chemistry2021
SwabExpress: An End-to-End Protocol for Extraction-Free COVID-19 Testing.
Article in Clinical chemistry, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 24 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
24 citing papers in PubMed, 32 citations in OpenAlex.
- Household Transmission and Genomic Diversity of Respiratory Syncytial Virus in the United States, 2022-2023.Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America · 2026Article
- Correlates of risk of respiratory syncytial virus disease: a prospective cohort study.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Health and Economic Impact of COVID-19 Surveillance Testing in Seattle Homeless Shelters: A Cost-Effectiveness Analysis.AJPM focus · 2025Article
- Advances in Virus Biorecognition and Detection Techniques for the Surveillance and Prevention of Infectious Diseases.Biosensors · 2025Review
- Rapid, Portable, and Electricity-free Sample Extraction Method for Enhanced Molecular Diagnostics in Resource-Limited Settings.Analytical chemistry · 2024Article
- Article
- Rapid Nucleic Acid Diagnostic Technology for Pandemic Diseases.Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- Tiny swabs: nasal swabs integrated into tube caps facilitate large-scale self-collected SARS-CoV-2 testing.Journal of clinical microbiology · 2024Article
- Critical evaluation of strategies to achieve direct real-time PCR detection of swine pathogens in oral fluids.Journal of veterinary diagnostic investigation : official publication of the American Association of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians, Inc · 2023Article
- Article
- Article
- Dry Swab-Based Nucleic Acid Extraction vs. Spin Column-Based Nucleic Acid Extraction for COVID-19 RT-PCR Testing: A Comparative Study.The Canadian journal of infectious diseases & medical microbiology = Journal canadien des maladies infectieuses et de la microbiologie medicale · 2023Article
- SARS-CoV-2 Screening Testing in Schools: A Comparison of School- Vs. Home-Based Collection Methods.Journal of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society · 2022Article
- Simple and low-cost nucleic acid extraction methods for detection of SARS-CoV2 in self-collected saliva and dry oral swabs.IJID regions · 2022Article
- Genomic surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variants on a university campus.Nature communications · 2022Article
- Article
- Homebrew: An economical and sensitive glassmilk-based nucleic-acid extraction method for SARS-CoV-2 diagnostics.Cell reports methods · 2022Article
- Direct Lysis RT-qPCR of SARS-CoV-2 in Cell Culture Supernatant Allows for Fast and Accurate Quantification.Viruses · 2022Article
- Article
- Evaluation of Swab-Seq as a scalable, sensitive assay for community surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 infection.Scientific reports · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
- Commented on by
- Update of
Authors and funding
36 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundThe urgent need for massively scaled clinical testing for SARS-CoV-2, along with global shortages of critical reagents and supplies, has necessitated development of streamlined laboratory testing protocols. Conventional nucleic acid testing for SARS-CoV-2 involves collection of a clinical specimen with a nasopharyngeal swab in transport medium, nucleic acid extraction, and quantitative reverse-transcription PCR (RT-qPCR). As testing has scaled across the world, the global supply chain has buckled, rendering testing reagents and materials scarce. To address shortages, we developed SwabExpress, an end-to-end protocol developed to employ mass produced anterior nares swabs and bypass the requirement for transport media and nucleic acid extraction.
methodsWe evaluated anterior nares swabs, transported dry and eluted in low-TE buffer as a direct-to-RT-qPCR alternative to extraction-dependent viral transport media. We validated our protocol of using heat treatment for viral inactivation and added a proteinase K digestion step to reduce amplification interference. We tested this protocol across archived and prospectively collected swab specimens to fine-tune test performance.
resultsAfter optimization, SwabExpress has a low limit of detection at 2-4 molecules/µL, 100% sensitivity, and 99.4% specificity when compared side by side with a traditional RT-qPCR protocol employing extraction. On real-world specimens, SwabExpress outperforms an automated extraction system while simultaneously reducing cost and hands-on time.
conclusionSwabExpress is a simplified workflow that facilitates scaled testing for COVID-19 without sacrificing test performance. It may serve as a template for the simplification of PCR-based clinical laboratory tests, particularly in times of critical shortages during pandemics.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.