A comparison of SARS-CoV-2 RNA extraction with the QuickGene-810 Nucleic Acid Isolation System compared to the EZ1 Advanced DSP Virus Kit

Thuy Phan; Rebecca Stephenson; Tina Cai; Nikol Andacic; Genevieve McKew

doi:10.1099/acmi.0.000353

A comparison of SARS-CoV-2 RNA extraction with the QuickGene-810 Nucleic Acid Isolation System compared to the EZ1 Advanced DSP Virus Kit

Access Microbiol. 2022 May 27;4(5):acmi000353. doi: 10.1099/acmi.0.000353. eCollection 2022 Aug.

Authors

Thuy Phan¹, Rebecca Stephenson¹, Tina Cai¹, Nikol Andacic¹, Genevieve McKew^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ NSW Health Pathology, Department of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, Concord Repatriation and General Hospital, Hospital Rd, Concord, NSW 2139, Australia.
² Concord Clinical School, Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia.

Abstract

The QuickGene-810 Nucleic Acid Isolation System is a semi-automated extraction platform which may be used for RNA extraction. New methods were required to support the rapid increase in respiratory virus testing during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. The aim of this study was to assess SARS-CoV-2 RNA extraction using the QuickGene-810 kit compared to the EZ1 Advanced Extraction Platform for use on the AusDiagnostics SARS-CoV-2, Influenza and RSV 8-well RT-PCR assay. Qualitative results from all clinical samples were concordant between the QuickGene-810 and the EZ1 extraction methods, demonstrating that the QuickGene-810 kit is suitable for use in pathogen diagnostics. However, there was an average difference of approximately two cycles between the cycle threshold (Ct) values for both SARS-CoV-2 targets, suggesting that the EZ1 kit yields a higher concentration of nucleic acid extract, possibly related to its use of carrier RNA and/or smaller elution volume, which infers the possibility of false negative results for samples with very low viral loads.

Keywords: QuickGene-810; RNA extraction; SARS-CoV-2.

Associated data

figshare/10.6084/m9.figshare.19316048