Review Research on SARS-CoV-2 Detection

Dear Colleagues, 

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is the virus that causes a respiratory disease called coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19). SARS-CoV-2 is a member of a large family of viruses called coronaviruses. SARS-CoV-2 was first known to infect people in 2019. The virus is thought to spread from person to person through droplets released when an infected person coughs, sneezes, or talks. Since the clinical manifestations and signs of infected patients (pneumonia, dyspnea, fever, cough, respiratory symptoms) are not definitive, supporting diagnostic and serological tests are essential for the diagnosis of COVID-19.

The aim of this Special Issue on review research on SARS-CoV-2 detection is to present a review for the available methods for the detection and characterisation of circulating SARS-CoV-2 variants. The value of diagnostic methods depends on the type of test, the time to get the results, testing accuracy, and the required resources for testing. In other words, the quick identification of suspected individuals is the best strategy to enable appropriate response and limit transmission. Different diagnostic tests have been developed for SARS-CoV-2 based on serological, molecular, and nanotechnology techniques. Detection of viral nucleic acid is frequently performed by high-throughput sequencing, reverse-transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), RT-loop-mediated isothermal amplification (RT-LAMP), and quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR), where qPCR is recommended as the most effective and direct method by the WHO.

Dr. Mai M. El-Daly
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Diagnostics is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.