Instruct: Identify the main category of Medrxiv papers based on the titles and abstracts
Query: A Viral Fragmentation Signature for SARS-CoV-2 in Clinical Samples Correlating with Contagiousness The viral load of SARS-CoV-2 in clinical samples as measured by the primary diagnostic tool of RT-PCR is an imperfect readout for infection potential as most targeted assays designed for sensitivity, indiscriminately detect short and long RNA fragments, although infectivity is embodied only in the whole virus and its intact genome. Here, we used next-generation sequencing (NGS) to characterize 155 clinical samples and show sensitive and quantitative detection of viral RNA which confirmed subgenomic RNA in 57.6% of samples and provided a novel method to determine relative integrity of viral RNA in samples. The relative abundance of long fragments quantified as a viral fragmentation score was positively associated with viral load and inversely related to time from disease onset. An empirically determined score cut-off for presence of substantially fragmented RNA was able to identify 100% of samples collected after 8 days of illness with poor infection potential in line with current clinical understanding of infectiousness of SARS-CoV-2. The quantification of longer fragments in addition to existing short targets in an NGS or RT-PCR-based assay could provide a valuable readout of infection potential simultaneous to the detection of any fragments of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in test samples.
71
The categories of this paper are: ethics
9
The categories of this paper are: diseases
43
The categories of this paper are: environmental
70
The categories of this paper are: otolaryngology
4
The categories of this paper are: reproductive
29
The categories of this paper are: anesthesia
51
The categories of this paper are: education
36
The categories of this paper are: economics
59
The categories of this paper are: respiratory
33
The categories of this paper are: physical
32
The categories of this paper are: rehabilitation
46
The categories of this paper are: therapeutics
26
The categories of this paper are: systems
14
The categories of this paper are: cardiovascular
38
The categories of this paper are: hiv
37
The categories of this paper are: aids