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ACS Infect Dis
. 2020 Aug 11.
doi: 10.1021/acsinfecdis.0c00464. Online ahead of print.
Comparative analysis of primer-probe sets for RT-qPCR of COVID-19 causative virus (SARS-CoV-2)
Yujin Jung, Gun-Soo Park, Jun Hye Moon, Keun Bon Ku, Seung-Hwa Beak, Chang-Seop Lee, Seil Kim, Edmond Changkyun Park, Daeui Park, Jong-Hwan Lee, Cheol Woo Byeon, Joong Jin Lee, Jin-Soo Maeng, Seong-Jun Kim, Seung Il Kim, Bum Tae Kim, Min Jun Lee, Hong Gi Kim
- PMID: 32786273
- DOI: 10.1021/acsinfecdis.0c00464
Abstract
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a newly emerging human infectious disease caused by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2, also previously known as 2019-nCoV). Within 8 months of the outbreak, more than 10,000,000 cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed worldwide. Since human-to-human transmission occurs easily, and the rate of human infection is rapidly increasing, sensitive and early diagnosis is essential to prevent a global outbreak. Recently, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced various primer-probe sets for SARS-CoV-2 developed in different institutions; China Center for Disease Control and Prevention (China CDC, China), Charit? (Germany), The University of Hong Kong (HKU, Hong Kong), National Institute of Infectious Diseases in Japan (Japan NIID, Japan), National Institute of Health in Thailand (Thailand NIH, Thailand), and US CDC (USA). In this study, we compared the ability to detect SARS-CoV-2 RNA among seven primer-probe sets for the N gene and three primer-probe sets for the Orf1 gene. The results revealed that 'NIID_2019-nCOV_N' from the Japan NIID and 'ORF1ab' from China CDC represents recommendable performance of RT-qPCR analysis for SARS-CoV-2 molecular diagnostics without cross-reactivity for hCoV-229E, hCoV-OC43, and MERS-CoV RNA. Therefore, the appropriate combination of NIID_2019-nCOV_N (Japan NIID) and ORF1ab (China CDC) sets should be selected for sensitive and reliable SARS-CoV-2 molecular diagnostics.