Braveheart Investment said portfolio group Paraytec‘s Covid-19 test was shown to be highly effective in detecting the presence of SARS-CoV-2 in recently infected participants in a study carried out by Sheffield University.
The COVID-19 test incorporates ParaySelect separation technology, together with its CX300 instrument and software algorithms, to identify SARS-CoV-2 virus particles in swab samples.
In a sample of 116 participants recruited within 4 days of symptom onset, the Paraytec test correctly identified 92.8% of all SARS-CoV-2 positive cases. This rose to 100% in participants with relatively low viral load.
The Paraytec test also correctly identified 89.2% of participants who did not have a SARS-CoV-2 infection.
Professor Carl Smythe, who led the work at Sheffield University with Paraytec, said the test’s effectiveness was particularly clear in those participants with relatively low viral (qPCR) load.
“Importantly, unlike PCR, which detects small so-called "dead" fragments of viruses present both before and long after the infectious phase, the Paraytec test detects intact viral particles which are more likely to indicate the presence of infectious virus.
“The Paraytec test was substantially better at detecting the presence of viral particles than viral culture, a labour-intensive approach which requires up to seven days of incubation, which yielded positive results in only around 30% of positive samples."
“We are particularly impressed that this technology has the potential to be used in a point-of-care setting to rapidly detect the presence of viral particles in people with early symptoms of infection, WITHOUT the need for sophisticated and expensive centralised laboratory-based PCR testing."
Braveheart holds a 100% equity interest in Paraytec.