No novel coronaviruses identified in a large collection of human nasopharyngeal specimens using family-wide CODEHOP-based primers.
Novel viruses might be responsible for numerous disease cases with unknown etiology. In this study, we screened 1800 nasopharyngeal samples from adult outpatients with respiratory disease symptoms and healthy individuals. We employed a reverse transcription (RT)-PCR assay and CODEHOP-based primers (CT12-mCODEHOP) previously developed to recognize known and unknown corona- and toroviruses. The CT12-mCODEHOP assay detected 42.0 % (29/69) of samples positive for human coronaviruses (HCoV), including HCoV-229 (1/16), HCoV-NL63 (9/17), and HCoV-OC43 (19/36), and additionally HCoV-HKU1 (3), which was not targeted by the diagnostic real-time PCR assays. No other coronaviruses were identified in the analyzed samples.
Department of Medical Microbiology, Leiden University Medical Center, Albinusdreef 2, E4-P, P.O. Box 9600, 2300 RC, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Kalina T
KT
Zlateva
Frank E J
FE
Coenjaerts
Kelly M
KM
Crusio
Christine
C
Lammens
Frank
F
Leus
Marco
M
Viveen
Margareta
M
Ieven
Willy J M
WJ
Spaan
Eric C J
EC
Claas
Alexander E
AE
Gorbalenya
D017934:Coronavirus / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D017931:DNA Primers / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D009305:Nasopharynx / Q000821:virology*; D012141:Respiratory Tract Infections / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000821:virology*; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods*
D017931:DNA Primers