Evidence map›Paper›PMID 34857628›Full record

ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2021

In vivo kinetics of SARS-CoV-2 infection and its relationship with a person's infectiousness.

Ruian Ke, Carolin Zitzmann, David D Ho, Ruy M Ribeiro, Alan S Perelson

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 106 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
106citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

106 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Trial
  3. Trial
  4. Trial
  5. Variant-Specific Viral Kinetics in Acute COVID-19.The Journal of infectious diseases · 2023
    Trial
  6. Trial
  7. Article
  8. Performance evaluation of the BioFire respiratory panel 2.1 plus and exploratory analysis of Ct values for respiratory pathogen quantification.European journal of clinical microbiology & infectious diseases : official publication of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology · 2026
    Article
  9. Article
  10. Review
  11. medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2026
    Article
  12. Article
  13. Review
  14. Article
  15. Article
  16. Article
  17. Article
  18. Article
  19. Article
  20. Viral Dynamic Models During COVID-19: Are We Ready for the Next Pandemic?CPT: pharmacometrics & systems pharmacology · 2025
    Review

46 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors.

Ruian KeTheoretical Biology and Biophysics Group, Theoretical Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM 87545.ORCID 0000-0001-5307-8934
Carolin ZitzmannTheoretical Biology and Biophysics Group, Theoretical Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM 87545.
David D HoAaron Diamond AIDS Research Center, Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, NY 10032.ORCID 0000-0003-1627-149X
Ruy M RibeiroTheoretical Biology and Biophysics Group, Theoretical Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM 87545.ORCID 0000-0002-3988-8241
Alan S PerelsonTheoretical Biology and Biophysics Group, Theoretical Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM 87545; asp@lanl.gov.ORCID 0000-0002-2455-0002

Funding

Spatial Models of Intrahepatic Hepatitis C Virus Propagation in HumansR01AI116868 · NIAID · TRIAD NATIONAL SECURITY, LLC · PI ASHWIN BALAGOPAL, Ruy M Ribeiro · 2016 to 2026
$8.5M
Modeling Viral and T Lymphocyte DynamicsR01OD011095 · OD · TRIAD NATIONAL SECURITY, LLC · PI PERELSON, ALAN S · 2012 to 2024
$5.0M
Immune System Modeling/HIVR01AI028433 · NIAID · UNIVERSITY OF CALIF-LOS ALAMOS NAT LAB · PI PERELSON, ALAN S · 1990 to 2021
$3.7M
Modeling the HIV latent reservoir, latency reversal and immunotherapeutics for HIV cureR01AI152703 · NIAID · TRIAD NATIONAL SECURITY, LLC · PI KE, RUIAN · 2020 to 2024
$3.0M
High resolution profiling and computational modeling of influenza virus-immune dynamics during natural infectionU01AI186993 · NIAID · UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN · PI Christopher Byron Brooke, Ruian Ke · 2025 to 2026
$2.7M
NIAID NIH HHS R01 AI028433NIAID NIH HHS R01 AI116868NIAID NIH HHS R01 AI152703NIAID NIH HHS U01 AI186993NIH HHS R01 AI15270301NIH HHS R01 OD011095
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

The within-host viral kinetics of SARS-CoV-2 infection and how they relate to a person's infectiousness are not well understood. This limits our ability to quantify the impact of interventions on viral transmission. Here, we develop viral dynamic models of SARS-CoV-2 infection and fit them to data to estimate key within-host parameters such as the infected cell half-life and the within-host reproductive number. We then develop a model linking viral load (VL) to infectiousness and show a person's infectiousness increases sublinearly with VL and that the logarithm of the VL in the upper respiratory tract is a better surrogate of infectiousness than the VL itself. Using data on VL and the predicted infectiousness, we further incorporated data on antigen and RT-PCR tests and compared their usefulness in detecting infection and preventing transmission. We found that RT-PCR tests perform better than antigen tests assuming equal testing frequency; however, more frequent antigen testing may perform equally well with RT-PCR tests at a lower cost but with many more false-negative tests. Overall, our models provide a quantitative framework for inferring the impact of therapeutics and vaccines that lower VL on the infectiousness of individuals and for evaluating rapid testing strategies.

Indexed as

COVID-19COVID-19 Nucleic Acid TestingFalse Positive ReactionsHumansKineticsSARS-CoV-2Serologic TestsSARS-CoV-2SARS-CoV-2 infectiousnessviral kinetics

Identifiers

PMID34857628
PMCPMC8670484

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.