ArticleScientific reports2020
Assessment of the direct quantitation of SARS-CoV-2 by droplet digital PCR.
Article in Scientific reports, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 40 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
40 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 56 citations in OpenAlex.
- Laboratory-based molecular test alternatives to RT-PCR for the diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 infection.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2024Pooled it
- Diagnostic performances of common nucleic acid tests for SARS-CoV-2 in hospitals and clinics: a systematic review and meta-analysis.The Lancet. Microbe · 2021Pooled it
- High-dose ivermectin for early treatment of COVID-19 (COVER study): a randomised, double-blind, multicentre, phase II, dose-finding, proof-of-concept clinical trial.International journal of antimicrobial agents · 2022Trial
- Droplet Digital PCR or Real-Time PCR as a Method for Quantifying SARS-CoV-2 RNA in Plasma-Is There a Difference?Viruses · 2025Article
- Article
- Review
- An SNP-based diagnostic method forFrontiers in veterinary science · 2025Article
- Association of viral loads of influenza A (H3N2) with age and care setting on presentation-a prospective study during the 2022-2023 influenza season in Spain.International journal of infectious diseases : IJID : official publication of the International Society for Infectious Diseases · 2024Article
- Impact of relative humidity on SARS-CoV-2 RNA extraction using Nextractor automated extraction system.Journal of biological methods · 2024Article
- Carbon-based nanomaterials against SARS-CoV-2: Therapeutic and diagnostic applications.OpenNano · 2023Article
- Identify the Virus-like Models for COVID-19 as Bio-Threats: Combining Phage Display, Spectral Detection and Algorithms Analysis.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Article
- Development of a droplet digital PCR assay for detection of group A porcine rotavirus.Frontiers in veterinary science · 2023Article
- Comparison of RT-qPCR and RT-dPCR Platforms for the Trace Detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in Wastewater.ACS ES&T water · 2022Article
- Review
- Digital PCR Applications in the SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 Era: a Roadmap for Future Outbreaks.Clinical microbiology reviews · 2022Review
- Non-PCR Ultrasensitive Detection of Viral RNA by a Nanoprobe-Coupling Strategy: SARS-CoV-2 as an Example.Advanced healthcare materials · 2022Article
- A review on the contamination of SARS-CoV-2 in water bodies: Transmission route, virus recovery and recent biosensor detection techniques.Sensing and Bio-Sensing Research · 2022Article
- SARS-CoV-2 detection using quantum dot fluorescence immunochromatography combined with isothermal amplification and CRISPR/Cas13a.Biosensors & bioelectronics · 2022Article
- SARS-CoV-2 Diagnostics Based on Nucleic Acids Amplification: From Fundamental Concepts to Applications and Beyond.Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2022Review
- New insights into the role of ribonuclease P protein subunit p30 from tumor to internal reference.Frontiers in oncology · 2022Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Droplet digital PCR (ddPCR) is a sensitive and reproducible technology widely used for quantitation of several viruses. The aim of this study was to evaluate the 2019-nCoV CDC ddPCR Triplex Probe Assay (BioRad) performance, comparing the direct quantitation of SARS-CoV-2 on nasopharyngeal swab with the procedure applied to the extracted RNA. Moreover, two widely used swab types were compared (UTM 3 mL and ESwab 1 mL, COPAN). A total of 50 nasopharyngeal swabs (n = 25 UTM 3 mL and n = 25 ESwab 1 mL) from SARS-CoV-2 patients, collected during the pandemic at IRCCS Sacro Cuore Don Calabria Hospital (Veneto Region, North-East Italy), were used for our purpose. After heat inactivation, an aliquot of swab medium was used for the direct quantitation. Then, we compared the direct method with the quantitation performed on the RNA purified from nasopharyngeal swab by automated extraction. We observed that the direct approach achieved generally equal RNA copies compared to the extracted RNA. The results with the direct quantitation were more accurate on ESwab with a sensitivity of 93.33% [95% CI, 68.05 to 99.83] and specificity of 100.00% for both N1 and N2. On the other hand, on UTM we observed a higher rate of discordant results for N1 and N2. The human internal amplification control (RPP30) showed 100% of both sensitivity and specificity independent of swabs and approaches. In conclusion, we described a direct quantitation of SARS-CoV-2 in nasopharyngeal swab. Our approach resulted in an efficient quantitation, without automated RNA extraction and purification. However, special care needs to be taken on the potential bias due to the conservation of samples and to the heating treatment, as we used thawed and heat inactivated material. Further studies on a larger cohort of samples are warranted to evaluate the clinical value of this direct approach.
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