Evaluating the efficacy of RT-qPCR SARS-CoV-2 direct approaches in comparison to RNA extraction
Ofir Israeli; Adi Beth-Din; Nir Paran; Dana Stein; Shirley Lazar; Shay Weiss; Elad Milrot; Yafit Atiya-Nasagi; Shmuel Yitzhaki; Orly Laskar; Ofir Schuster.
Preprint
in English
| PREPRINT-BIORXIV | ID: ppbiorxiv-144196
SARS-CoV-2 genetic identification is based on viral RNA extraction prior to RT-qPCR assay, however recent studies support the elimination of the extraction step. Herein, we assessed the RNA extraction necessity, by comparing RT-qPCR efficacy in several direct approaches vs. the gold standard RNA extraction, in detection of SARS-CoV-2 from laboratory samples as well as clinical Oro-nasopharyngeal SARS-CoV-2 swabs. Our findings show advantage for the extraction procedure, however a direct no-buffer approach might be an alternative, since it identified up to 70% of positive clinical specimens.
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