Subgenomic RNA Abundance Relative to Total Viral RNA Among Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Variants

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Maxwell Su, Emory University; Sara Ping, Emory University; Phuong-Vi Nguyen, Emory University; Alejandra Rojas, Instituto de Investigaciones en Ciencias de la Salud Universidad Nacional de Asuncion; Laila Hussaini, Emory University; Ludy Registre Carmola, Emory University; Azmain Taz, Emory University; Julie Sullivan, The Atlanta Center for Microsystems-Engineered Point-of-Care Technologies; Gregory Martin, Emory University; Anne Piantadosi, Emory University; Magaly Martinez, Instituto de Investigaciones en Ciencias de la Salud Universidad Nacional de Asuncion; Wilbur Lam, Emory University; Evan Anderson, Emory University; Jesse Waggoner, Emory University
• Language: English
• Date: 2022-11-01
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication Version: Final Published Version
• Copyright Statement: © The Author(s) 2022. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Infectious Diseases Society of America.
• License: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International
• Final Published Version (URL): http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ofid/ofac619
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: Open Forum Infectious Diseases
• Volume: 9
• Issue: 11
• Start Page: ofac619
• End Page: ofac619
• Grant/Funding Information: This work was supported by funding from the Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (CONACYT) with support from el Fondo para la Excelencia de la Educacción y la Investigación (FEEI), Paraguay, PINV20-239 (to M. M.); the National Institutes of Health (grant numbers U54 EB027690 02S1, U54 EB027690 03S1, U54EB027690 03S2, and UL1TR002378); and the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation (Clinical Scientist Development Award 2019089 to J. J. W.). The ROAPS study is supported by a contract from Pfizer, Inc.
• Keywords: variants of concern; severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2; subgenomic RNA
• Research Categories: Biology, Genetics

Abstract

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) subgenomic RNA (sgRNA) may indicate actively replicating virus, but sgRNA abundance has not been systematically compared between SARS-CoV-2 variants. sgRNA was quantified in 169 clinical samples by real-time reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction, demonstrating similar relative abundance among known variants. Thus, sgRNA detection can identify individuals with active viral replication regardless of variant.