S-Variant SARS-CoV-2 Lineage B1.1.7 Is Associated With Significantly Higher Viral Load in Samples Tested by TaqPath Polymerase Chain Reaction. (13th February 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Kidd, Michael; Richter, Alex; Best, Angus; Cumley, Nicola; Mirza, Jeremy; Percival, Benita; Mayhew, Megan; Megram, Oliver; Ashford, Fiona; White, Thomas; Moles-Garcia, Emma; Crawford, Liam; Bosworth, Andrew; Atabani, Sowsan F; Plant, Tim; McNally, Alan
• Is Part Of: Journal of infectious diseases. Volume 223:Number 10(2021)
• Page Start: 1666
• Page End: 1670
• Publication Date: 2021-02-13
• Subjects: SARS-CoV-2 -- COVID-19 -- RT-PCR -- TaqPath -- viral load -- Ct values -- Δ69/70 -- S-variant -- B.1.1.7 -- VOC-202012/01 -- SGTF -- S gene dropout; Communicable diseases -- Periodicals; Diseases -- Causes and theories of causation -- Periodicals; Medicine -- Periodicals; Communicable Diseases -- Periodicals; Electronic journals; 616.9
• DOI: 10.1093/infdis/jiab082
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0022-1899

Abstract

Abstract: A SARS-CoV-2 variant B1.1.7 containing mutation Δ69/70 has spread rapidly in the United Kingdom and shows an identifiable profile in ThermoFisher TaqPath RT-qPCR, S gene target failure (SGTF). We analyzed recent test data for trends and significance. Linked cycle threshold (Ct) values for respiratory samples showed that a low Ct for ORF1ab and N were clearly associated with SGTF. Significantly more SGTF samples had higher inferred viral loads between 1×10 7 and 1×10 8 . Our conclusion is that patients whose samples exhibit the SGTF profile are more likely to have high viral loads, which may explain higher infectivity and rapidity of spread.