Above left to below right: Elizabeth Zavalla, PRC Executive Director, Dean Charlotte Chiong, Vice Chancellor Michael L. Tee, Chancellor Carmencita D. Padilla,PRC Molecular Laboratory Director Paulyn Jean Ubial, PRC Chair and Senator Richard J. Gordon, UP President Danilo Concepcion, Associate Professor Cherica A. Tee
February 28, 2021 — A collaborative study among the Philippine Red Cross (PRC), University of Illinois, and UP Manila led to the approval for local use of the COVID-19 saliva test. The new test was launched by the PRC on 25 January 2021 in its Mandaluyong headquarters.
This uses the innovative saliva test designed by a team of researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) in 2020. The team is led by Dr. Martin Burke and Dr. Paul Hergenrother, and also includes Filipino scientist Dr. Diana Rose Ranoa. Dr. Ranoa is a postdoctoral research associate at the UIUC who obtained her BS and M.Sc. in Molecular Biology and Biotechnology from UP Diliman. The said saliva test is at the core of SHIELD Illinois, a screening testing program and infrastructure which the team created and is now deployed across that state.
Senator Richard Gordon, head of the PRC, took notice of the UIUC saliva-based test. According to Chancellor Carmencita Padilla, who was at the launching, Sen. Gordon called up UP Manila Vice Chancellor for Planning and Development Dr. Michael Tee to ask if he knew about the UIUC research and Dr. Diana Ranoa, and if UP can do a research on the subject. Dr. Tee then immediately assembled a team which worked on adapting the protocol developed by the UIUC group to the Sansure Biotech system already operational in the many PRC molecular laboratories nationwide.
A tripartite agreement was arranged and signed by Senator Richard Gordon and UP President Danilo Concepcion with the UIUC to formalize the collaboration.
In her message during the launch, Chancellor Padilla acknowledged the UP Manila Research Ethics Board for its swift action in evaluating the proposal submitted by the team of scientists from PRC, UPM, and UIUC; and for guiding the team on the conduct of research that can pass scrutiny of health regulators.
President Danilo Concepcion, during his speech, lauded the successful efforts of the team and highlighted the important role of UP in the nation’s response to the COVID pandemic.
The PRC COVID-19 test has four major advantages. First, it is non-invasive: instead of nostril and throat swabbing for samples, the new test kit needs only 1.5-2ml of saliva. Second, it is cheaper, costing only Php 2,000 compared to the swab test’s Php 3,800. Third, it has a 6-12 hour faster turn-around time, compared to one day for the swab test’s results. And fourth, it has the same 98% accuracy as the nasopharyngeal test. It also uses the gold standard for checking for the SARS-Cov-2 virus: RT-PCR technique.
After evaluating the results of more than 1,000 parallel swab and saliva samples from volunteers, the team reported a 98% accuracy to the COVID-19 laboratory expert panel, leading to the approval of “saliva as an alternative specimen for RT-PCR testing in PRC laboratories using the Sansure kit and the approved protocol proposed and implemented in the pilot study conducted by the group of UP alumni researchers.”
The UP Manila research team is composed of Drs. Michael L. Tee, Paulyn Jean R. Ubial, Diana Rose E. Ranoa, Cherica A. Tee, Aedrian A. Abrilla, Lawrence John Paulo L. Trinidad, Charlotte M. Chiong, Regina P. Berba, Ryner Jose D. Carrillo, Maria Cecilia F. Lim, and Leslie Michelle M. Dalmacio.
Aside from Burke, Hergenrother, and Ranoa, the other members of the UIUC research team are Timothy Fan, Fadi Alnaji, Christopher Brooke, Kelsie Green, Robin Holland, and Leyi Wang.
The Philippine Red Cross COVID-19 Saliva Test is now available in PRC branches nationwide and through major chains of shopping malls in Metro Manila.
Michael L. Tee & Fedelynn M. Jemena
Published in UP Manila Healthscape Special COVID-19 Issue No. 24
