COVID-19 target: A specific target for novel coronavirus detection

Reza Kamali Kakhki; Mohammad Kamali Kakhki; Alireza Neshani

doi:10.1016/j.genrep.2020.100740

COVID-19 target: A specific target for novel coronavirus detection

Gene Rep. 2020 Sep:20:100740. doi: 10.1016/j.genrep.2020.100740. Epub 2020 May 30.

Authors

Reza Kamali Kakhki¹, Mohammad Kamali Kakhki², Alireza Neshani^{1

3}

Affiliations

¹ Antimicrobial Resistance Research Center, Medical School, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran.
² Tehran Healthcare Clinic, Tehran, Iran.
³ Department of Laboratory Sciences, School of Paramedical Sciences, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran.

Abstract

An ongoing outbreak of pneumonia associated with a novel coronavirus has been reported worldwide and become a global health problem; hence, the diagnosis and differentiation of this virus from other types of coronavirus is essential to control of the disease. To this end, the analysis of genomics data plays a vital role in introducing a stronger target and consequently provides better results in laboratory examinations. The modified comparative genomics approach helps us to find novel specific targets by comparing two or more sequences on the nucleotide collection database. We, for the first time, detected ORF8 gene as a potential target for the detection of the novel coronavirus. Unlike previous reported genes (RdRP, E and N genes), ORF8 is entirely specific to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) and has no cross-reactivity with other kinds of coronavirus. Accordingly, ORF8 gene can be used as an additional confirmatory assay.

Keywords: BLAST, basic local alignment search tool; COVID-19; COVID-19, coronavirus disease 2019; Coronavirus; Diagnosis; MERS-CoV, Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus; ORF-8; ORF-8, open reading frame 8; RT-PCR, reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction; SARS-CoV, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus.