Molecular detection of SARS-CoV-2 being challenged by virus variation and asymptomatic infection

Congshan Jiang; Xiaowei Li; Changrong Ge; Yuanyuan Ding; Tao Zhang; Shuai Cao; Liesu Meng; Shemin Lu

doi:10.1016/j.jpha.2021.03.006

Molecular detection of SARS-CoV-2 being challenged by virus variation and asymptomatic infection

J Pharm Anal. 2021 Jun;11(3):257-264. doi: 10.1016/j.jpha.2021.03.006. Epub 2021 Mar 26.

Authors

Congshan Jiang^{1

2}, Xiaowei Li^{1

2}, Changrong Ge³, Yuanyuan Ding⁴, Tao Zhang⁴, Shuai Cao⁵, Liesu Meng^{1

2}, Shemin Lu^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Molecular and Translational Medicine (IMTM); Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Xi'an Jiaotong University Health Science Center, 76 West Yanta Road, Xi'an, Shaanxi, 710061, PR China.
² Key Laboratory of Environment and Genes Related to Diseases (Xi'an Jiaotong University), Ministry of Education, Xi'an, Shaanxi, 710061, PR China.
³ Section for Medical Inflammation Research, Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, 17177, Sweden.
⁴ School of Pharmacy, Xi'an Jiaotong University Health Science Center, 76 West Yanta Road, Xi'an, Shaanxi, 710061, PR China.
⁵ Department of Orthopedics, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, Shaanxi, 710004, PR China.

Abstract

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been a pandemic for more than a year. With the expanding second wave of the pandemic in winter, the continuous evolution of SARS-CoV-2 has brought new issues, including the significance of virus mutations in infection and the detection of asymptomatic infection. In this review, we first introduced several major SARS-CoV-2 mutations since the COVID-19 outbreak and then mentioned the widely used molecular detection techniques to diagnose COVID-19, primarily focusing on their strengths and limitations. We further discussed the effects of viral genetic variation and asymptomatic infection on the molecular detection of SARS-CoV-2 infection. The review finally summarized useful insights into the molecular diagnosis of COVID-19 under the special situation being challenged by virus mutation and asymptomatic infection.

Keywords: Asymptomatic infection; Nucleic acid detection; SARS-CoV-2; Virus variation.

Publication types

Review