Evaluation and Clinical Validation of Two Field-deployable Reverse Transcription-Insulated Isothermal PCR Assays for the Detection of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus

Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) is an emerging zoonotic viral respiratory disease that was first identified in Saudi Arabia in 2012. In 2015, the largest MERS outbreak outside of the Middle East region occurred in the Republic of Korea. The rapid nosocomial transmission of MERS-coronavirus (MERS-CoV) in Korean healthcare settings highlighted the importance and urgent need for a rapid and reliable on-site diagnostic assay to implement effective control and preventive measures. Here, we describe the evaluation and validation of two newly developed reverse transcription-insulated isothermal PCR (RT-iiPCR) methods targeting the ORF1a and upE genes of MERS-CoV.

Source: Journal of Molecular Diagnostics - August 11, 2017 Category: Pathology Authors: Yun Young Go, Yeon-Sook Kim, Shinhye Cheon, Sangwoo Nam, Keun Bon Ku, Meehyein Kim, Nam Hyuk Cho, Hyun Park, Pei-Yu Alison Lee, Yu-Chun Lin, Yun-Long Tsai, Hwa-Tang Thomas Wang, Udeni B.R. Balasuriya Tags: Regular Article Source Type: research