tetano
Editor, Senior Moderator
Arch Microbiol
. 2022 Jun 23;204(7):415.
doi: 10.1007/s00203-022-03029-y.
Current RT-qPCR to detect SARS-CoV-2 may give positive results for related coronaviruses
Antonio Martínez-Murcia[SUP] 1 2 [/SUP], Adrián García-Sirera[SUP] 3 [/SUP], Aaron Navarro[SUP] 3 [/SUP], Laura Pérez[SUP] 3 [/SUP]
Affiliations
Abstract
Some weeks after the first CoVID-19 outbreak, the World Health Organization published some real-time PCR (qPCR) protocols developed by different health reference centers. These qPCR designs are being used worldwide to detect SARS-CoV-2 in the population, to monitor the prevalence of the virus during the pandemic. Moreover, some of these protocols to detect SARS-CoV-2 have widely been applied to environmental samples for epidemiological surveillance purposes. In the present work, the specificity of these currently used RT-qPCR designs was validated in vitro using SARS-CoV-2 and highly related coronaviral genomic sequences and compared to performance of the commercially available GPS™ CoVID-19 dtec-RT-qPCR Test. Assays performed with SARS-CoV-2-related genomes showed positive amplification when using some of these qPCR methods, indicating they may give SARS-CoV-2 false positives. This finding may be particularly relevant for SARS-CoV-2 monitoring of environmental samples, where an unknown pool of phylogenetically close-related viruses may exist.
Keywords: Coronavirus; False positives; Reverse transcription qPCR; SARS-CoV-2; Specificity.
. 2022 Jun 23;204(7):415.
doi: 10.1007/s00203-022-03029-y.
Current RT-qPCR to detect SARS-CoV-2 may give positive results for related coronaviruses
Antonio Martínez-Murcia[SUP] 1 2 [/SUP], Adrián García-Sirera[SUP] 3 [/SUP], Aaron Navarro[SUP] 3 [/SUP], Laura Pérez[SUP] 3 [/SUP]
Affiliations
- PMID: 35737122
- DOI: 10.1007/s00203-022-03029-y
Abstract
Some weeks after the first CoVID-19 outbreak, the World Health Organization published some real-time PCR (qPCR) protocols developed by different health reference centers. These qPCR designs are being used worldwide to detect SARS-CoV-2 in the population, to monitor the prevalence of the virus during the pandemic. Moreover, some of these protocols to detect SARS-CoV-2 have widely been applied to environmental samples for epidemiological surveillance purposes. In the present work, the specificity of these currently used RT-qPCR designs was validated in vitro using SARS-CoV-2 and highly related coronaviral genomic sequences and compared to performance of the commercially available GPS™ CoVID-19 dtec-RT-qPCR Test. Assays performed with SARS-CoV-2-related genomes showed positive amplification when using some of these qPCR methods, indicating they may give SARS-CoV-2 false positives. This finding may be particularly relevant for SARS-CoV-2 monitoring of environmental samples, where an unknown pool of phylogenetically close-related viruses may exist.
Keywords: Coronavirus; False positives; Reverse transcription qPCR; SARS-CoV-2; Specificity.