Comparative analysis of primer-probe sets for the laboratory confirmation of SARS-CoV-2

Yu Jin Jung; Gun-Soo Park; Jun Hye Moon; Keunbon Ku; Seung-Hwa Beak; Seil Kim; Edmond Changkyun Park; Daeui Park; Jong-Hwan Lee; Cheol Woo Byeon; Joong Jin Lee; Jin-Soo Maeng; Seong Jun Kim; Seung Il Kim; Bum-Tae Kim; Min Jun Lee; Hong Gi Kim

Molecular diagnosis of COVID-19 is currently carried out by one-step quantitative RT-PCR (qRT-PCR) targetting SARS-CoV-2 by which primers and probes being suggested by institutes of China, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Thailand, and USA were posted through WHO [8] [9] [10] . Clinical diagnosis methods including CT scan are also utilized to identify COVID-19 cases in Hubei province, China, from 13 February 2020 [11] . Although qRT-PCR assay served as a gold-standard method to detect respiratory infectious viruses such as SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV [12] [13] [14] [15] , current qRT-PCR assays targetting SARS-CoV-2 have some caveats. First, due to the high similarity of SARS-CoV-2 to SARS-CoV, primer-probe sets would cross-react. Second, the sensitivity of the assays may not enough to confirm suspicious patients in early time points after admission. Indeed, cases of positive CT scan results and negative RT-PCR results at initial presentation were reported [16] . The performance of molecular diagnosis might be dependent on primers, probes, and reagents. There have been no comparative results of the current qRT-PCR analysis for the molecular diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2.