Abstract
COVID-19 was initially reported in China at the end of 2019 and soon thereafter, in March 2020, the WHO declared it a pandemic. Until October 2021, over 240 million COVID-19 cases were recorded, with 4.9 mln deaths. In order to stop the spread of this disease, it is crucial to monitor and detect any infected person. The etiologic agent of COVID-19 is a novel coronavirus called SARS-CoV-2. The gold standard for the detection of the virus is the RT-qPCR method. This study evaluated two RNA extraction methods and four commercial RT-qPCR assays routinely used in diagnostic laboratories for detecting SARS-CoV-2 in human specimens from the upper respiratory tract. We analyzed a panel of 70 clinical samples with varying RNA loads. Our study demonstrated the significant impact of the diagnostic methods selected by the laboratory on the SARS-CoV-2 detection in clinical specimens with low viral loads.
Highlights
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was initially reported in Wuhan, China, in December 2019 and spread to other countries within a few months
The etiologic factor of this infectious disease is a coronavirus classified by the World Health Organization (WHO) as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Corona Virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) [3]
Our study demonstrated the impact of the RNA isolation method and the kind of RT-qPCR assay used on the SARS-CoV-2 identification in clinical specimens with a varied load of viral RNA
Summary
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was initially reported in Wuhan, China, in December 2019 and spread to other countries within a few months. On March 11th, the outbreak was declared a global pandemic [1]. Until October 2021, over 240 million COVID-19 cases were recorded, with 4.9 mln deaths [2]. The etiologic factor of this infectious disease is a coronavirus classified by the World Health Organization (WHO) as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Corona Virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) [3]. There are currently seven coronaviruses (CoVs) that cause human respiratory diseases, among which SARS-CoV, MERS, and SARS-CoV-2 have caused significant outbreaks with high mortality [4]. Genome sequencing analysis showed that SARS-CoV-2 shares 88% identity to two bat SARS-like CoVs (bat-SL-CoVZC45 and bat-SL-CoVZXC21), 79% identity to SARS-CoV, and 50% identity to MERS-CoV [5]
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