Subgenomic RNA Abundance Relative to Total Viral RNA Among Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Variants

Maxwell Su; Sara Ping; Phuong-Vi Nguyen; Alejandra Rojas; Laila Hussaini; Ludy Registre Carmola; Azmain Taz; Julie Sullivan; Greg S Martin; Anne Piantadosi; Magaly Martinez; Wilbur A Lam; Evan J Anderson; Jesse J Waggoner

doi:10.1093/ofid/ofac619

Subgenomic RNA Abundance Relative to Total Viral RNA Among Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Variants

Open Forum Infect Dis. 2022 Nov 10;9(11):ofac619. doi: 10.1093/ofid/ofac619. eCollection 2022 Nov.

Authors

Maxwell Su¹, Sara Ping¹, Phuong-Vi Nguyen¹, Alejandra Rojas², Laila Hussaini³, Ludy Registre Carmola⁴, Azmain Taz⁴, Julie Sullivan⁵, Greg S Martin^{5

6}, Anne Piantadosi^{1

4

5}, Magaly Martinez⁷, Wilbur A Lam^{3

5

8}, Evan J Anderson^{1

3}, Jesse J Waggoner^{1

5

9}

Affiliations

¹ Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
² Departamento de Producción, Universidad Nacional de Asunción, Instituto de Investigaciones en Ciencias de la Salud, Asunción, Paraguay.
³ Department of Pediatrics and Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
⁴ Department of Pathology, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
⁵ Atlanta Center for Microsystems-Engineered Point-of-Care Technologies, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
⁶ Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine, Department of Medicine, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
⁷ Departamento de Biología Molecular y Biotecnología, Universidad Nacional de Asunción, Instituto de Investigaciones en Ciencias de la Salud, Asunción, Paraguay.
⁸ Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
⁹ Department of Global Health, Rollins School of Public Health, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.

Abstract

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) subgenomic RNA (sgRNA) may indicate actively replicating virus, but sgRNA abundance has not been systematically compared between SARS-CoV-2 variants. sgRNA was quantified in 169 clinical samples by real-time reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction, demonstrating similar relative abundance among known variants. Thus, sgRNA detection can identify individuals with active viral replication regardless of variant.

Keywords: severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2; subgenomic RNA; variants of concern.

Grants and funding

UL1 TR002378/TR/NCATS NIH HHS/United States