A sensitive and affordable multiplex RT-qPCR assay for SARS-CoV-2 detection

by Martin A. M. Reijns, Louise Thompson, Juan Carlos Acosta, Holly A. Black, Francisco J. Sanchez-Luque, Austin Diamond, David A. Parry, Alison Daniels, Marie O'Shea, Carolina Uggenti, Maria C. Sanchez, Alan O'Callaghan, Michelle L. L. McNab, Martyna Adamowicz, Elias T. Friman, Toby Hurd, Edward J. Jarman, Frederic Li Mow Chee, Jacqueline K. Rainger, Marion Walker, Camilla Drake, Dasa Longman, Christine Mordstein, Sophie J. Warlow, Stewart McKay, Louise Slater, Morad Ansari, Ian P. M. Tomlinson, David Moore, Nadine Wilkinson, Jill Shepherd, Kate Templeton, Ingolfur Johannessen, Christine Tait-Burkard, J ürgen G. Haas, Nick Gilbert, Ian R. Adams, Andrew P. Jackson With the ongoing COVID-19 (Coronavirus Disease 2019) pandemic, caused by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2), there is a need for sensitive, specific, and affordable diagnostic tests to identify infected individuals, not all of whom are symptomatic. T he most sensitive test involves the detection of viral RNA using RT-qPCR (quantitative reverse transcription PCR), with many commercial kits now available for this purpose. However, these are expensive, and supply of such kits in sufficient numbers cannot always be guaranteed. We therefore developed a multiplex assay using well-established SARS-CoV-2 targets alongside a human cellular control (RPP30) and a viral spike-in control (Phocine Herpes Virus 1 [PhHV-1]), which monitor sample quality and nucleic acid extraction ef...
Source: PLoS Biology: Archived Table of Contents - Category: Biology Authors: Source Type: research