Tahan Stephen, Parikh Bijal A, Droit Lindsay, Wallace Meghan A, Burnham Carey-Ann D, Wang David
Department of Molecular Microbiology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri, USA.
Department of Pathology and Immunology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri, USA.
J Clin Microbiol. 2021 Jun 18;59(7):e0007521. doi: 10.1128/JCM.00075-21.
Diagnostic assays for detecting severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) are essential for patient management, infection prevention, and the public health response for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The efficacy and reliability of these assays are of paramount importance in both tracking and controlling the spread of the virus. Real-time reverse transcription-PCR (RT-PCR) assays rely on a fixed genetic sequence for primer and probe binding. Mutations can potentially alter the accuracy of these assays and lead to unpredictable analytical performance characteristics and false-negative results. Here, we identify a G-to-U transversion (nucleotide 26372) in the SARS-CoV-2 E gene in three specimens with reduced viral detection efficiency using a widely available commercial assay. Further analysis of the public GISAID repository led to the identification of 18 additional genomes with this mutation, which reflect five independent mutational events. This work supports the use of dual-target assays to reduce the number of false-negative PCR results.
用于检测严重急性呼吸综合征冠状病毒2（SARS-CoV-2）的诊断检测方法对于患者管理、感染预防以及2019冠状病毒病（COVID-19）的公共卫生应对至关重要。这些检测方法的有效性和可靠性对于追踪和控制病毒传播至关重要。实时逆转录聚合酶链反应（RT-PCR）检测方法依赖于固定的基因序列进行引物和探针结合。突变可能会改变这些检测方法的准确性，并导致不可预测的分析性能特征和假阴性结果。在此，我们使用一种广泛使用的商业检测方法，在三个病毒检测效率降低的标本中，鉴定出SARS-CoV-2 E基因中的一个G到U颠换（核苷酸26372）。对公共GISAID数据库的进一步分析导致鉴定出另外18个具有此突变的基因组，这反映了五个独立的突变事件。这项工作支持使用双靶标检测方法来减少假阴性PCR结果的数量。
