Respiratory viral co-infections among SARS-CoV-2 cases confirmed by virome capture sequencing

Sci Rep. 2021 Feb 16;11(1):3934. doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-83642-x.

Abstract

Accumulating evidence supports the high prevalence of co-infections among Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) patients, and their potential to worsen the clinical outcome of COVID-19. However, there are few data on Southern Hemisphere populations, and most studies to date have investigated a narrow spectrum of viruses using targeted qRT-PCR. Here we assessed respiratory viral co-infections among SARS-CoV-2 patients in Australia, through respiratory virome characterization. Nasopharyngeal swabs of 92 SARS-CoV-2-positive cases were sequenced using pan-viral hybrid-capture and the Twist Respiratory Virus Panel. In total, 8% of cases were co-infected, with rhinovirus (6%) or influenzavirus (2%). Twist capture also achieved near-complete sequencing (> 90% coverage, > tenfold depth) of the SARS-CoV-2 genome in 95% of specimens with Ct < 30. Our results highlight the importance of assessing all pathogens in symptomatic patients, and the dual-functionality of Twist hybrid-capture, for SARS-CoV-2 whole-genome sequencing without amplicon generation and the simultaneous identification of viral co-infections with ease.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Australia / epidemiology
  • COVID-19 / diagnosis*
  • COVID-19 / virology*
  • Coinfection / diagnosis*
  • Coinfection / epidemiology
  • Coinfection / virology*
  • Computational Biology
  • Genome, Viral
  • Humans
  • Open Reading Frames / genetics
  • Reproducibility of Results
  • SARS-CoV-2 / genetics*
  • Sequence Analysis, DNA*
  • Virome / genetics*
  • Whole Genome Sequencing