Double-Quencher Probes Improved the Detection Sensitivity of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) by One-Step RT-PCR

Yosuke Hirotsu; Hitoshi Mochizuki; Masao Omata

This means the shorter the distance between the fluorescence dye and the quencher, the better the quenching performance due to the fluorescence resonance energy transfer. Second, the background signal is prone to be low if the probe forms three-dimensional structure owing to self-quenching. To detect the low number of virus in human sample, the reduction of background signal is important. To this end, we utilized a double-quencher system for detecting SARS-CoV-2 by a one-step real-time RT-PCR. As expected, a double-quencher probe decreased the background signal at the baseline which led to a higher dynamic range. Our data suggested that double-quencher probe enables us to detect low number of SARS-CoV-2 in routine clinical practice. . CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license It is made available under a is the author/funder, who has granted medRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity.