According to the paper, the efficiency of the automatic sampling manipulator is equivalent to that of manual sampling. The inactivation time of the collected samples was shortened to 12 minutes, and the inactivation efficiency is the same as that of water bath heating, but nucleic acid integrity is not damaged.

The high sensitivity of nucleic acid detection is achieved by nested constant temperature amplification in the fully-integrated chip laboratory system, which takes the detection sensitivity to 150 copies per ml without opening the cover.

This research achievement provides a promising solution for the rapid deployment of medical diagnosis system in the mobile laboratory, and helps local containment of SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2) transmission.

Hailed by Chinese respiratory disease expert Zhong Nanshan as “Light Cavalry”, the mobile lab can work with the 220 V civil power or by using the generator on the vehicle.

The operator in the lab only needs to use the pipette gun to add the inactivated sample into the chip, seal it, and put it into the fully integrated COVID-19 nucleic acid detection chip system, which has been approved by the State Food and Drug Administration for emergency approval and has CE-IVD certification from the European Union.

The process of experiment in the mobile lab

The whole experiment can be completed in 45 minutes, and the results will be reported within 35 minutes, which greatly reduces dependence on professional sampling personnel for detection of nucleic acid. It can also lower the risk of infection and cross-contamination between samples.

Compared with fixed and large vehicle labs, the mobile lab can be used in on-the-spot nucleic acid detection in communities, villages, mountainous areas, ports and other grassroots areas, and meet emergency medical service demands such as surgical emergency, stroke, myocardial infarction, oral required treatment during the epidemic.

At present, the "light cavalry" has been used in Songpan county, Jiuzhaigou county and other grass-roots centers for Disease Control and prevention in Aba Tibetan and Qiang autonomous prefecture, Sichuan province, and hospitals in the cities of Guangzhou, Zhuhai and Qingdao.

The other paper is “Evaluation of the Immunomodulatory Effects of Anti-COVID-19 TCM Formulae by Multiple virus-related Pathways”. It was published in Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy (IF=13.493), affiliated to top scientific journal Nature.

The paper ‘Valuation of the Immunomodulatory Effects of Anti-COVID-19 TCM Formulae by Multiple virus-related Pathways’ is published in Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy under top scientific journal Nature.

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has been widely used to treat over 90 percent of the COVID-19 patients in Chinese hospitals. Of all patients with mild and moderate symptoms in Wuhan, none developed severe symptoms when they were only treated with TCM. It is essential to evaluate TCM’s efficacy and select the most appropriate treatments in a specific context.

The researchers collected 125 anti-COVID-19 TCM formulae from public sources, which were included in 166 TCM applications. More than 3,000 genes were detected and received gene expression analysis.

They also evaluated the TCM formula’s immunomodulatory efficacy based on a total of 11 virus-related pathways in cells exposed to the 166 TCM uses.

COVID-19 patients may face two immune problems: cytokine storm syndrome and immunosuppression. Therefore, the paper evaluates the anti-COVID-19 TCM formulae from these two angles, and reports that the 98 prescriptions headed by DTPC6-Qingfei Paidu Decoction have the potential to inhibit cytokine storm; and the 26 prescriptions led by Shengmai Yin can activate the immune system and alleviate immunosuppression.

Hierarchical clustering is performed for the 132 samples (125 formulae and 7 SARS-CoV-2-infected samples) by considering the 11 virus-related pathways.

The top 3 TCM formulae in the research

The gene expression data of the cells exposed to TCMs are released on the Molecular Compendium of Materia Medica（https://mcmm.capitalbio.com).

The COVID-19 epidemic has triggered the world’s attention and cooperation on health. China’s epidemic control protocols and diagnostic and treatment plans have been recognized globally.

Led by Cheng Jing, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and medical biophysicist, CapitalBio developed a respiratory nucleic acid multi-virus detection chip system, and a highly-integrated laboratory system, as well as a vehicle borne nucleic acid detection mobile laboratory, as a contribution to epidemic prevention and control.

The company always attaches equal importance to traditional Chinese and Western medicines. Its research achievements, ranging from rapid viral detection technology to the scientific evaluation of anti-epidemic Chinese medicine, have received high attention from international peers.