Publication detail

Digital PCR Applications in the SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 Era: a Roadmap for Future Outbreaks

NYARUABA, R. MWALIKO, C. DOBNIK, D. NEUZIL, P. AMOTH, P. MWAU, M. YU, J. YANG, H. WEI, H.P.

Original Title

Digital PCR Applications in the SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 Era: a Roadmap for Future Outbreaks

Type

journal article in Web of Science

Language

English

Original Abstract

The ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has led to a global public health disaster. The current gold standard for the diagnosis of infected patients is real-time reverse transcription-quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR). As effective as this method may be, it is subject to false-negative and -positive results, affecting its precision, especially for the detection of low viral loads in samples. In contrast, digital PCR (dPCR), the third generation of PCR, has been shown to be more effective than the gold standard, RT-qPCR, in detecting low viral loads in samples. In this review article, we selected publications to show the broad-spectrum applications of dPCR, including the development of assays and reference standards, environmental monitoring, mutation detection, and clinical diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2, while comparing it analytically to the gold standard, RT-qPCR. In summary, it is evident that the specificity, sensitivity, reproducibility, and detection limits of RT-dPCR are generally unaffected by common factors that may affect RT-qPCR. As this is the first time that dPCR is being tested in an outbreak of such a magnitude, knowledge of its applications will help chart a course for future diagnosis and monitoring of infectious disease outbreaks.

Keywords

RT-dPCR; RT-qPCR; SARS-CoV-2; COVID-19; ddPCR; diagnosis; quantification; viral load

Authors

NYARUABA, R.; MWALIKO, C.; DOBNIK, D.; NEUZIL, P.; AMOTH, P.; MWAU, M.; YU, J.; YANG, H.; WEI, H.P.

Released

21. 9. 2022

Publisher

American Society for Microbiology

Location

USA

ISBN

1098-6618

Periodical

Clinical Microbiology Reviews

Year of study

35

Number

3

State

United States of America

Pages count

37

URL

https://journals.asm.org/doi/full/10.1128/cmr.00168-21

BibTex

@article{BUT183674,
  author="NYARUABA, R. and MWALIKO, C. and DOBNIK, D. and NEUZIL, P. and AMOTH, P. and MWAU, M. and YU, J. and YANG, H. and WEI, H.P.",
  title="Digital PCR Applications in the SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 Era: a Roadmap for Future Outbreaks
",
  journal="Clinical Microbiology Reviews",
  year="2022",
  volume="35",
  number="3",
  pages="37",
  doi="10.1128/cmr.00168-21",
  issn="1098-6618",
  url="https://journals.asm.org/doi/full/10.1128/cmr.00168-21"
}