Comparison of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Screening Using Reverse Transcriptase–Quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction or CRISPR-Based Assays in Asymptomatic College Students
| Autor: | Maxwell Z. Wilson, Jennifer N. Rauch, Holly Smith, Kenneth S. Kosik, Sabrina C. Solley, Chinmay Vaidya, Betsy Malear, Carolina Arias, Diego Acosta-Alvear, Morgane Audouard, Michael S. Costello, Ryan S. Lach, Katherine Arn, Francesca Zappa, Zach Aralis, Lynn Fitzgibbons, Laura E. Polito, Eric Valois, Stewart Comer, Jose Carlos Ponce-Rojas, Ali Javanbakht |
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| Rok vydání: | 2021 |
| Předmět: |
Male
viruses Disease Outbreaks Cohort Studies Mass Screening Medicine Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats Aetiology Young adult skin and connective tissue diseases Lung Original Investigation education.field_of_study Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction RNA-Directed DNA Polymerase General Medicine Viral Load Online Only Infectious Diseases Cohort Female medicine.symptom Infection Viral load Cohort study Adult medicine.medical_specialty Adolescent Universities Concordance Population Asymptomatic Vaccine Related Young Adult Biodefense Internal medicine Humans Students education Pandemics Clinical Laboratory Techniques SARS-CoV-2 business.industry Prevention Research COVID-19 Outbreak Emerging Infectious Diseases business 2.4 Surveillance and distribution |
| Zdroj: | JAMA Network Open JAMA network open, vol 4, iss 2 |
| ISSN: | 2574-3805 |
| Popis: | Key Points Question Are CRISPR-based methods a reliable and accessible option to capture severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) outbreaks in a college population? Findings In this cohort study, 1808 asymptomatic college students were screened for SARS-CoV-2 status using reverse transcriptase–quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) and CRISPR-based assays. Nine samples positive for SARS-CoV-2 were detected by RT-qPCR, and 8 were confirmed by CRISPR-based assay and clinical laboratory diagnostic testing, uncovering a change in viral prevalence that coincided with the relaxation of lockdown measures and the rise of coronavirus disease 2019 cases in the community. Meaning CRISPR-based methods appear to offer reliable SARS-CoV-2 testing for virus screening and allow capture of the leading edge of an outbreak. This cohort study assesses the prevalence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 among asymptomatic college students using a new CRISPR-Cas13–based assay. Importance The reopening of colleges and universities in the US during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is a significant public health challenge. The development of accessible and practical approaches for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) detection in the college population is paramount for deploying recurrent surveillance testing as an essential strategy for virus detection, containment, and mitigation. Objective To determine the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 in asymptomatic participants in a university community by using CREST (Cas13-based, rugged, equitable, scalable testing), a CRISPR-based test developed for accessible and large-scale viral screening. Design, Setting, and Participants For this cohort study, a total of 1808 asymptomatic participants were screened for SARS-CoV-2 using a CRISPR-based assay and a point-of-reference reverse transcriptase–quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) test. Viral prevalence in self-collected oropharyngeal swab samples collected from May 28 to June 11, 2020, and from June 23 to July 2, 2020, was evaluated. Exposures Testing for SARS-CoV-2. Main Outcomes and Measures SARS-CoV-2 status, viral load, and demographic information of the study participants were collected. Results Among the 1808 participants (mean [SD] age, 27.3 [11.0] years; 955 [52.8%] female), 732 underwent testing from May to early June (mean [SD] age, 28.4 [11.7] years; 392 [53.6%] female). All test results in this cohort were negative. In contrast, 1076 participants underwent testing from late June to early July (mean [SD] age, 26.6 [10.5] years; 563 [52.3%] female), with 9 positive results by RT-qPCR. Eight of these positive samples were detected by the CRISPR-based assay and confirmed by Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments–certified diagnostic testing. The mean (SD) age of the positive cases was 21.7 (3.3) years; all 8 individuals self-identified as students. These metrics showed that a CRISPR-based assay was effective at capturing positive SARS-CoV-2 cases in this student population. Notably, the viral loads detected in these asymptomatic cases resemble those seen in clinical samples, highlighting the potential of covert viral transmission. The shift in viral prevalence coincided with the relaxation of stay-at-home measures. Conclusions and Relevance These findings reveal a shift in SARS-CoV-2 prevalence in a young and asymptomatic population and uncover the leading edge of a local outbreak that coincided with rising case counts in the surrounding county and the state of California. The concordance between CRISPR-based and RT-qPCR testing suggests that CRISPR-based assays are reliable and offer alternative options for surveillance testing and detection of SARS-CoV-2 outbreaks, as is required to resume operations in higher-education institutions in the US and abroad. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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