Pooled Testing Strategies for SARS-CoV-2 diagnosis: A comprehensive review.

SARS-CoV-2 has surged across the globe causing the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Systematic testing to facilitate index case isolation and contact tracing is needed for efficient containment of viral spread. The major bottleneck in leveraging testing capacity has been the lack of diagnostic resources. Pooled testing is a potential approach that could reduce cost and usage of test kits. This method involves pooling individual samples and testing them 'en bloc'. Only if the pool tests positive, retesting of individual samples is performed. Upon reviewing recent articles on this strategy employed in various SARS-CoV-2 testing scenarios, we found substantial diversity emphasizing the requirement of a common protocol. In this article, we review various theoretically simulated and clinically validated pooled testing models and propose practical guidelines on applying this strategy for large scale screening. If implemented properly, the proposed approach could contribute to proper utilization of testing resources and flattening of infection curve.

An in vitro dataset on infectious potential of transmitted/founder (TF) and non-TF (NT) HIV-1 viruses generated from Interferon alpha-treated primary CD4+ T cells.

This data article describes the infectivity of transmitted/founder (TF) and non-TF (NT) HIV-1 viruses derived from primary CD4+ T cells treated with or without IFN-α, over a period of 12 days. TF and NT viruses described in this article were derived from the same individual (one of each from 8 infants who acquired HIV infection through mother-to-child transmission (MTCT). IFN-α resistance to both TF and NT viruses was studied by infecting TZM-bl cells and measuring luciferase expression (expressed as relative light units, RLU). Measurement of luciferase expression is extremely sensitive and allows quantification of even small changes in gene expression at the transcriptional level.