Coronavirus detection in the clinical microbiology laboratory: Are we ready for identifying and diagnosing a novel virus?
Autor
Uhteg, Katharine
Carroll, Karen C.
Mostafa, Heba H.
Institución
Resumen
ndemic species of coronaviruses (HCoV-OC43, HCoV-229E, HCoV-NL63, and HCoVHKU1) are frequent causes of upper respiratory tract infections. The molecular diagnosis of the
four species has become integrated into most of the comprehensive respiratory molecular
panels used for routine diagnosis. Three highly pathogenic coronaviruses have been associated
with outbreaks and epidemics and have challenged clinical microbiology laboratories to quickly
develop assays for diagnosis. Their initial characterization was achieved by molecular methods
that included pan-coronavirus PCR, amplicon sequencing, and whole genome sequencing.
Molecular diagnostic methods were developed and made available mainly at public health
laboratories or the CDC. With the great advance in metagenomic whole genome sequencing
directly from clinical specimens, diagnosis of novel coronaviruses could be quickly implemented
into the workflow of managing cases of pneumonia of unknown etiology, which will markedly
impact the time of the initial characterization and accelerate the initiation of outbreak control
measures.