February 8, 2021

Implementation of an In-House Real-Time Reverse Transcription-PCR Assay for the Rapid Detection of the SARS-CoV-2 Marseille-4 Variant

Category: Article Summary

Topic: Testing and Treatment

Keywords (Tags): testing, variants

[Pre-print, not peer-reviewed] A study evaluating an in-house, real-time RT-PCR (qPCR) assay to detect a SARS-CoV-2 variant with an S477N substitution in the receptor binding domain associated with increased binding affinity to ACE2 found that the assay reliably detected this variant. All 6 cDNA samples from the variant strains tested positive using the assay, whereas all 32 cDNA samples from other variants tested negative. In addition, 93% of respiratory samples identified by next-generation sequencing as containing the variant strain were positive and 0/26 samples containing non-variant strains were positive. 

Bedotto et al. (Feb 8, 2021). Implementation of an In-House Real-Time Reverse Transcription-PCR Assay for the Rapid Detection of the SARS-CoV-2 Marseille-4 Variant. Pre-print downloaded Feb 8 from https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.02.03.21250823