Sensitive tracking of circulating viral RNA through all stages of SARS-CoV-2 infection

CONCLUSION Results of this study indicate that sensitive detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in blood by CRISPR-augmented RT-PCR permits accurate COVID-19 diagnosis, and can detect COVID-19 cases with transient or negative nasal swab RT-qPCR results, suggesting that this approach could improve COVID-19 diagnosis and the evaluation of SARS-CoV-2 infection clearance, and predict the severity of infection.TRIAL REGISTRATION ClinicalTrials.gov. NCT04358211.FUNDING Department of Defense, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, and the National Center for Research Resources.

Source: Journal of Clinical Investigation - April 2, 2021 Category: Biomedical Science Authors: Zhen Huang, Bo Ning, He S. Yang, Brady M. Youngquist, Alex Niu, Christopher J. Lyon, Brandon J. Beddingfield, Alyssa C. Fears, Chandler H. Monk, Amelie E. Murrell, Samantha J. Bilton, Joshua P. Linhuber, Elizabeth B. Norton, Monika L. Dietrich, Jim Yee, W Source Type: research