Massive and rapid COVID-19 testing is feasible by extraction-free SARS-CoV-2 RT-qPCR
Ioanna Smyrlaki, Martin Ekman, Martin Vondracek, Natali Papanicoloau, Antonio Lentini, Johan Aarum, Shaman Muradrasoli, Jan Albert, Björn Högberg, Björn Reinius
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.04.17.20067348
Abstract
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The most widely used method of COVID-19 diagnostics is a reverse transcription quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) assay, detecting the presence of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in patient samples, typically from nasopharyngeal swabs. The RNA extraction is a major bottleneck in current COVID-19 testing, in terms of turn-around, logistics, component availability and cost, which delays or completely precludes COVID-19 diagnostics in many settings. Efforts to simplify the current methods are important, as increased diagnostic availability and efficiency is expected to benefit patient care and infection control. Here, we describe methods to circumvent RNA extraction in COVID-19 testing by performing RT-qPCR directly on heat-inactivated subject samples as well as samples lysed with readily available detergents.
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