Selected Grantee Publications

Sensitive Tracking of Circulating Viral RNA Through All Stages of SARS-CoV-2 Infection

Huang  et al., Journal of Clinical Investigation. 2021.

https://www.jci.org/articles/view/146031

Circulating SARS-CoV-2 RNA could represent a more reliable indicator of infection than nasal RNA, but quantitative reverse transcription PCR (RT-qPCR) lacks diagnostic sensitivity for blood samples. Researchers developed a CRISPR-amplified, blood-based COVID-19 (CRISPR-ABC) assay to detect SARS-CoV-2 in plasma. They evaluated the assay using samples from SARS-CoV-2-infected African green monkeys and rhesus macaques, as well as from COVID-19 patients. CRISPR-ABC consistently detected viral RNA in the plasma of the experimentally infected primates from 1 to 28 days after infection. The increases in plasma SARS-CoV-2 RNA in the monkeys preceded rectal swab viral RNA increases. In the patient cohort, the new assay demonstrated 91.2% sensitivity and 99.2% specificity versus RT-qPCR nasopharyngeal testing, and it also detected COVID-19 cases with transient or negative nasal swab RT-qPCR results. These findings suggest that detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in blood by CRISPR-augmented RT-PCR could improve COVID-19 diagnosis, facilitate the evaluation of SARS-CoV-2 infection clearance, and help predict the severity of infection. Supported by ORIP (P51OD011104).