Molecular detection of SARS-CoV-2 in Argentina: Evaluation of alternative diagnostic tools for the decentralization of the diagnosis

CASTRO, GONZALO MANUEL; SICILIA, PAOLA; GIEROTTO, ROBERTINO; SOSA, JULIETA; CASTELLARO, ANDRÉS MARCOS; BARBÁS, MARÍA GABRIELA; PISANO, MARÍA BELÉN; RÉ, VIVIANA E.

REVISTA ARGENTINA DE MICROBIOLOGíA

ASOCIACION ARGENTINA MICROBIOLOGIA

Año: 2023

0325-7541

Abstract The rocketing number of COVID-19 cases highlighted the critical role that diag-nostic tests play in medical and public health decision-making to contain and mitigate theSARS-CoV-2 pandemic. This study reports the evaluation and implementation of different testsfor the molecular detection of SARS-CoV-2 in the central region of Argentina. We evaluated3 real time RT-PCR kits (GeneFinder COVID-19 Plus RealAmp Kit, DisCoVery SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR Detection Kit and WGene SARS-CoV-2 RT Detection), 2 nucleic acid extraction methods[MagaBio plus Virus DNA/RNA Purification Kit II (BioFlux), 35-min vs. 9-min], a pre-analyticalreagent (FlashPrep®) and 2 isothermal amplification tests (Neokit Plus and ELA CHEMSTRIP®).The order according to the best performance of the 3 real-time RT-PCR kits evaluated was: Dis-CoVery > GeneFinderTM > WGene. The 2 RNA extraction methods showed similar good results:MagaBio plus Virus RNA Purification Kit II (BioFlux) 9-min was selected due to its faster per-formance. FlashPrep® reagent showed excellent results to perform direct RNA detection.Isothermal amplification assays showed acceptable sensitivity and specificity values (>80%),except in samples with Ct > 30. Our data show optimal real time RT-PCR kits and alternativemolecular methods for SARS-CoV-2 diagnostic. These alternative assays proved to be acceptablefor their use in adverse contexts, decentralization, and different epidemiological scenarios, forrapid and accurate SARS-CoV-2 detection