PCR test of British scientists will determine the infected variant of the coronavirus 
variants of SARS-CoV-2 even in samples with destroyed RNA of the virus. A preprint describing the new technique is published on medRxiv.org.
The allele-specific probe PCR (ASP-PCR) method developed by scientists from Oxford University and Imperial College London allows real-time detection of viral variants even in samples with low content viral RNA, which is typical for patients with advanced COVID-19. The researchers tested their method on 1,082 samples from clinical trials in the UK and Brazil and compared them with the sequencing results of 1,771 patients.
The sensitivity of ASP-PCR for the alpha variant was 98 percent, and the specificity was 100 percent. In addition, for the gamma variant, these indicators were 90-95 and 91-100 percent, respectively. Comparison of the results of the new method with the sequencing data of the new generation showed that the accuracy of the first one is 25 percent higher. When using ASP-PCR it was possible to determine the belonging of 95 percent of samples with destroyed RNA, sequencing allowed this to be done only for 11 percent of such samples. The developers emphasize that their method can be easily modified to identify new, currently unknown variants of SARS-CoV-2.