Eurosurv. Monkeypox DNA levels correlate with virus infectivity in clinical samples, Israel, 2022

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• Nir Paran^1,* , Yfat Yahalom-Ronen^1,* , Ohad Shifman² , Shirley Lazar² , Ronen Ben-Ami^3,10 , Michal Yakubovsky³ , Itzchak Levy^4,10 , Anat Wieder-Feinsod^4,10 , Sharon Amit⁵ , Michal Katzir^6,10 , Noga Carmi-Oren⁷ , Ariela Levcovich⁷ , Mirit Hershman-Sarafov^8,11 , Alona Paz^8,11 , Rebecca Thomas⁹ , Hadas Tamir¹ , Lilach Cherry-Mimran¹ , Noam Erez¹ , Sharon Melamed¹ , Moria Barlev-Gross¹ , Shay Karmi¹ , Boaz Politi¹ , Hagit Achdout¹ , Shay Weiss¹ , Haim Levy¹ , Ofir Schuster¹ , Adi Beth-Din² , Tomer Israely¹

The current monkeypox virus global spread and lack of data regarding clinical specimens’ infectivity call for examining virus infectivity, and whether this correlates with results from PCR, the available diagnostic tool. We show strong correlation between viral DNA amount in clinical specimens and virus infectivity toward BSC-1 cell line. Moreover, we define a PCR threshold value (Cq ≥ 35, ≤ 4,300 DNA copies/mL), corresponding to negative viral cultures, which may assist risk-assessment and decision-making regarding protective-measures and guidelines for patients with monkeypox.

https://www.eurosurveillance.org/content/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2022.27.35.2200636#html_fulltext