S-Variant SARS-CoV-2 Lineage B1.1.7 Is Associated With Significantly Higher Viral Load in Samples Tested by TaqPath Polymerase Chain Reaction

Michael Kidd; Alex Richter; Angus Best; Nicola Cumley; Jeremy Mirza; Benita Percival; Megan Mayhew; Oliver Megram; Fiona Ashford; Thomas White; Emma Moles-Garcia; Liam Crawford; Andrew Bosworth; Sowsan Atabani; Tim Plant; Alan McNally

doi:10.1093/infdis/jiab082

S-Variant SARS-CoV-2 Lineage B1.1.7 Is Associated With Significantly Higher Viral Load in Samples Tested by TaqPath Polymerase Chain Reaction

Michael Kidd, Alex Richter, Angus Best, Nicola Cumley, Jeremy Mirza, Benita Percival, Megan Mayhew, Oliver Megram, Fiona Ashford, Thomas White, Emma Moles-Garcia, Liam Crawford, Andrew Bosworth, Sowsan Atabani, Tim Plant, Alan McNally

Birmingham Lab

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

163 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

A SARS-CoV-2 variant B1.1.7 containing mutation Δ69/70 has spread rapidly in the United Kingdom and shows an identifiable profile in ThermoFisher TaqPath RT-qPCR, S gene target failure (SGTF). We analyzed recent test data for trends and significance. Linked cycle threshold (Ct) values for respiratory samples showed that a low Ct for ORF1ab and N were clearly associated with SGTF. Significantly more SGTF samples had higher inferred viral loads between 1×107 and 1×108. Our conclusion is that patients whose samples exhibit the SGTF profile are more likely to have high viral loads, which may explain higher infectivity and rapidity of spread.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1666-1670
Number of pages	5
Journal	Journal of Infectious Diseases
Volume	223
Issue number	10
Early online date	13 Feb 2021
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1093/infdis/jiab082
Publication status	Published - 4 May 2021

Bibliographical note

Funding Information: This work was supported by the UK Department of Health and Social Care.

Open Access: Free to view, but not Open Access.

Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s) 2021. Published by Oxford University Press for the Infectious Diseases Society of America. All rights reserved.

Citation: Michael Kidd, Alex Richter, Angus Best, Nicola Cumley, Jeremy Mirza, Benita Percival, Megan Mayhew, Oliver Megram, Fiona Ashford, Thomas White, Emma Moles-Garcia, Liam Crawford, Andrew Bosworth, Sowsan F Atabani, Tim Plant, Alan McNally, S-Variant SARS-CoV-2 Lineage B1.1.7 Is Associated With Significantly Higher Viral Load in Samples Tested by TaqPath Polymerase Chain Reaction, The Journal of Infectious Diseases, Volume 223, Issue 10, 15 May 2021, Pages 1666–1670

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/infdis/jiab082

Keywords

B.1.1.7
COVID-19
Ct values
RT-PCR
S gene dropout
S-variant
SARS-CoV-2
SGTF
TaqPath
VOC-202012/01
viral load
Δ69/70

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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Kidd, M., Richter, A., Best, A., Cumley, N., Mirza, J., Percival, B., Mayhew, M., Megram, O., Ashford, F., White, T., Moles-Garcia, E., Crawford, L., Bosworth, A., Atabani, S., Plant, T., & McNally, A. (2021). S-Variant SARS-CoV-2 Lineage B1.1.7 Is Associated With Significantly Higher Viral Load in Samples Tested by TaqPath Polymerase Chain Reaction. Journal of Infectious Diseases, 223(10), 1666-1670. https://doi.org/10.1093/infdis/jiab082

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abstract = "A SARS-CoV-2 variant B1.1.7 containing mutation Δ69/70 has spread rapidly in the United Kingdom and shows an identifiable profile in ThermoFisher TaqPath RT-qPCR, S gene target failure (SGTF). We analyzed recent test data for trends and significance. Linked cycle threshold (Ct) values for respiratory samples showed that a low Ct for ORF1ab and N were clearly associated with SGTF. Significantly more SGTF samples had higher inferred viral loads between 1×107 and 1×108. Our conclusion is that patients whose samples exhibit the SGTF profile are more likely to have high viral loads, which may explain higher infectivity and rapidity of spread.",

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Kidd, M, Richter, A, Best, A, Cumley, N, Mirza, J, Percival, B, Mayhew, M, Megram, O, Ashford, F, White, T, Moles-Garcia, E, Crawford, L, Bosworth, A, Atabani, S, Plant, T & McNally, A 2021, 'S-Variant SARS-CoV-2 Lineage B1.1.7 Is Associated With Significantly Higher Viral Load in Samples Tested by TaqPath Polymerase Chain Reaction', Journal of Infectious Diseases, vol. 223, no. 10, pp. 1666-1670. https://doi.org/10.1093/infdis/jiab082

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AU - Cumley, Nicola

AU - Mirza, Jeremy

AU - Percival, Benita

AU - Mayhew, Megan

AU - Megram, Oliver

AU - Ashford, Fiona

AU - White, Thomas

AU - Moles-Garcia, Emma

AU - Crawford, Liam

AU - Bosworth, Andrew

AU - Atabani, Sowsan

AU - Plant, Tim

AU - McNally, Alan

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KW - TaqPath

KW - VOC-202012/01

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KW - Δ69/70

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S-Variant SARS-CoV-2 Lineage B1.1.7 Is Associated With Significantly Higher Viral Load in Samples Tested by TaqPath Polymerase Chain Reaction

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

UN SDGs

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