Department of Clinical and Molecular Medicine, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim, Norway.
Department of Clinical and Molecular Medicine, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim, Norway.
J Clin Virol. 2022 Sep;154:105247. doi: 10.1016/j.jcv.2022.105247. Epub 2022 Jul 22.
The importance of endemic human coronavirus (HCoV) in children has been insufficiently elucidated upon. Our aims were to develop subgenomic (sg) mRNA tests for HCoV species OC43 and NL63, and to evaluate the relationships to HCoV genomic loads, single HCoV detections and clinical manifestations.
We have used an 11-yearlong cohort study of children admitted with respiratory tract infection (RTI) and hospital controls. Nasopharyngeal aspirates were analyzed for HCoV subtypes OC43 and NL63 with in-house diagnostic PCR. Positive samples were tested with newly developed real-time PCRs targeting sg mRNA coding for the nucleocapsid protein.
OC43 sg mRNA was detected in 86% (105/122) of available OC43-positive samples in the RTI group, and in 63% (12/19) of control samples. NL63 sg mRNA was detected in 72% (71/98) and 71% (12/17) of available NL63-positive patient and control samples, respectively. In RTI samples, sg mRNA detection was strongly associated with a Ct value <32 in both diagnostic PCR tests (OC43: OR = 54, 95% CI [6.8-428]; NL63: OR = 42, 95% CI [9.0-198]) and single NL63 detections (OR = 6.9, 95% CI [1.5-32]). Comparing RTI and controls, only OC43 was associated with RTI when adjusted for age (aOR = 3.2, 95% CI [1.1-9.4]).
We found strong associations between OC43 and NL63 sg mRNA and high viral genomic loads. sg mRNA for OC43 was associated with RTI. The association between sg mRNA and clinical manifestations needs further evaluation.
人类冠状病毒（HCoV）在儿童中的重要性尚未得到充分阐明。我们的目的是开发用于 HCoV 种 OC43 和 NL63 的亚基因组（sg）mRNA 检测方法，并评估其与 HCoV 基因组负荷、单一 HCoV 检测和临床表现的关系。
我们使用了一项长达 11 年的儿童呼吸道感染（RTI）入院和医院对照队列研究。使用内部诊断 PCR 分析鼻咽抽吸物中 HCoV 亚型 OC43 和 NL63。对阳性样本进行新开发的针对核衣壳蛋白 sg mRNA 的实时 PCR 检测。
在 RTI 组中，可获得的 OC43 阳性样本中，86%（105/122）检测到 OC43 sg mRNA，在对照组中，63%（12/19）检测到。在可获得的 NL63 阳性患者和对照样本中，分别有 72%（71/98）和 71%（12/17）检测到 NL63 sg mRNA。在 RTI 样本中，sg mRNA 检测与两种诊断 PCR 检测中 Ct 值<32（OC43：OR=54，95%CI[6.8-428]；NL63：OR=42，95%CI[9.0-198]）和单一 NL63 检测（OR=6.9，95%CI[1.5-32]）呈强相关。在调整年龄后，仅 OC43 与 RTI 相关（aOR=3.2，95%CI[1.1-9.4]）。
我们发现 OC43 和 NL63 sg mRNA 与高病毒基因组负荷之间存在强关联。OC43 sg mRNA 与 RTI 相关。sg mRNA 与临床表现之间的关联需要进一步评估。
