Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Comparative Study
. 2020 May 26;58(6):e00557-20.
doi: 10.1128/JCM.00557-20. Print 2020 May 26.

Comparative Performance of SARS-CoV-2 Detection Assays Using Seven Different Primer-Probe Sets and One Assay Kit

Arun K Nalla  1 , Amanda M Casto  2   3 , Meei-Li W Huang  1 , Garrett A Perchetti  1 , Reigran Sampoleo  1 , Lasata Shrestha  1 , Yulun Wei  1 , Haiying Zhu  1 , Keith R Jerome  4   3 , Alexander L Greninger  4
Affiliations
Comparative Study

Comparative Performance of SARS-CoV-2 Detection Assays Using Seven Different Primer-Probe Sets and One Assay Kit

Arun K Nalla et al. J Clin Microbiol. .

Abstract

Nearly 400,000 people worldwide are known to have been infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) beginning in December 2019. The virus has now spread to over 168 countries including the United States, where the first cluster of cases was observed in the Seattle metropolitan area in Washington. Given the rapid increase in the number of cases in many localities, the availability of accurate, high-throughput SARS-CoV-2 testing is vital to efforts to manage the current public health crisis. In the course of optimizing SARS-CoV-2 testing performed by the University of Washington Clinical Virology Lab (UW Virology Lab), we evaluated assays using seven different primer-probe sets and one assay kit. We found that the most sensitive assays were those that used the E-gene primer-probe set described by Corman et al. (V. M. Corman, O. Landt, M. Kaiser, R. Molenkamp, et al., Euro Surveill 25:2000045, 2020, https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2020.25.3.2000045) and the N2 set developed by the CDC (Division of Viral Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2020, https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/downloads/rt-pcr-panel-primer-probes.pdf). All assays tested were found to be highly specific for SARS-CoV-2, with no cross-reactivity with other respiratory viruses observed in our analyses regardless of the primer-probe set or kit used. These results will provide valuable information to other clinical laboratories who are actively developing SARS-CoV-2 testing protocols at a time when increased testing capacity is urgently needed worldwide.

Keywords: E-gene; N2; SARS-CoV-2; primer; probe.

PubMed Disclaimer

Update of

References

    1. World Health Organization. 2020. Novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) situation report–1. World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland.
    1. Coronaviridae Study Group on the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses. 2020. The species Severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus: classifying 2019-nCoV and naming it SARS-CoV-2. Nat Microbiol 5:536–544. doi:10.1038/s41564-020-0695-z. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Dong E, Du H, Gardner L. 2020. An interactive web-based dashboard to track COVID-19 in real time. Lancet Infect Dis doi:10.1016/S1473-3099(20)30120-1. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Okada P, Buathong R, Phuygun S, Thanadachakul T, Parnmen S, Wongboot W, Waicharoen S, Wacharapluesadee S, Uttayamakul S, Vachiraphan A, Chittaganpitch M, Mekha N, Janejai N, Iamsirithaworn S, Lee RT, Maurer-Stroh S. 2020. Early transmission patterns of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in travellers from Wuhan to Thailand, January 2020. Euro Surveill 25:2000097. doi:10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2020.25.8.2000097. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Sun LH, Bernstein L. 21 January 2020. First U.S. case of potentially deadly Chinese coronavirus confirmed in Washington State. Washington Post, Washington, DC. https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/01/21/coronavirus-us-case/.

Publication types