MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 19th March, 2020) Chemists at the Moscow State University (MSU) are set to roll out the production of DNA primers for express diagnostics of coronavirus to potentially cater millions of tests, the MSU press service said in a press release.
"The Moscow university's chemists are ready to launch a full-scale production of DNA primers for fast diagnostics of COVID-19 using test systems based on the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method," the statement read.
Such systems rely upon DNA-oligonucleotides (short fragments of DNA chains) which, according to MSU Chemistry Department Dean Stepan Kalmykov and Natural Compounds Chemistry Chair Head Aleksey Kopylov, can be easily integrated into the existing Russian-made tests.
The synthesis and purification of DNA-oligonucleotides, which the MSU said it had conducted in collaboration with chemists from the Russian academy of Sciences, could help launch mass production right now and make quantities adequate enough to supply millions of tests.
Earlier in the day, Russia reported its first death of a COVID-19 patient - a 79-year-old woman with preexisting health conditions, including diabetes and high blood pressure. The country at the moment has verified 133 cases after over 133,000 tests, including five people who have recovered.
