Massive and rapid COVID-19 testing is feasible by extraction-free SARS-CoV-2 RT-qPCR

Ioanna Smyrlaki; Martin Ekman; Martin Vondracek; Natali Papanicoloau; Antonio Lentini; Johan Aarum; Shaman Muradrasoli; Jan Albert; Björn Högberg; Björn Reinius

Here, we established routines for SARS-CoV-2 RNAextraction-free single-reaction RT-qPCR testing (Fig. 1) on heat-inactivated nasopharyngeal swab samples in transport medium and compared the results with clinically diagnosed patient samples, demonstrating the viability of extraction-free SARS-CoV-2 diagnostics. In addition, we provide data showing that SARS-CoV-2 RT-qPCR can be performed in presence of high concentration of detergent, allowing testing directly on sample lysates. Importantly, our method builds on clinically established protocols and could easily be integrated to expand ongoing testing pipelines. It is also modular and can be incorporated into alternative approaches utilising PCR.