How do viral test kits work?
In: Biology
A technique called qPCR. You use an enzyme called Reverse transcriptase to convert viral RNA into DNA. Then followed by another enzyme called DNA polymerase to clone it multiple times.
Mix that with fluorescent DNA primers (short glowing chunks) that are used by the enzyme to build the target DNA, and you can count how much viral DNA there is based on how much fluorescence is given off under UV light.
There are other techniques but this is the easiest and most common.
The other technique in a broad sense that the other answer is referring to is detection of the virus itself through antibodies. basically, you make antibodies that bind specifically to unique parts of the virus. There are then different techniques to see if your antibodies are bound (meaning the virus is present in your sample). For example immunofluorescence uses another antibody that binds to the first one, and has a molecule attached to it that light up a certain color. You can then detect how much of that color is there, and thus how much virus is present
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