A novel real-time PCR assay panel for detection of common respiratory pathogens in a convenient, strip-tube array format

Mohammad Rubayet Hasan; Hassan Al Mana; Virginia Young; Patrick Tang; Eva Thomas; Rusung Tan; Peter Tilley

tests offer many advantages including a rapid response time and the ability to detect organisms 70 that will not grow in culture. In addition these tests allow detection of bacteria in patients where 71 antimicrobial treatment has been initiated prior to collection of the sample. We now have access 72 to accurate and rapid multiplex assays simultaneously detecting both viral and bacterial 73 pathogens within a few hours. The ability to diagnose co-infections is a significant improvement 74 as these can be associated with increased morbidity and mortality (19) (20) (21) . Rapid molecular tests 75 have been shown to reduce the length of hospital stay and the cost for testing for those with viral 76 respiratory testing and has facilitated a more targeted approach to patients presenting with 77 respiratory infections with respect to treatment regimens, need for admission and infection 78 control concerns (7, (22) (23) (24) . which are missed by the existing assays. Therefore, in this study, we developed an in-house PCR 106 assay panel (Respanel) customized to detect the most common, and clinically significant 107 respiratory pathogens. The assay was designed to use pre-aliquoted assay-specific reagents in 108 strip-tubes for convenience, and to reduce the hands-on time required to perform multiple The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not peer-reviewed) is the author/funder. It . https://doi.org/10.1101/455568 doi: bioRxiv preprint acids from 0.5 ml of NPW or NPFS specimens were extracted on a NucliSENS® easyMAG 139 platform (bioMérieux, France) according to the methods described by the manufacturers.