Quantification of the SARS-CoV-2 RNA in Tissues by Quantitative Real Time-PCR

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) has become infamous recently due to its capability to cause a severe disease known as coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19). Believed to have originated from Wuhan, Hubei province, China, SARS-CoV-2 has impacted a global scale, thereby making the World Health Organization (WHO) declare COVID-19 a pandemic. The range of R0 values is between 2.43 and 3.10, showing the severity of the disease, highlighting this concern for health and public administration authorities. The major preventive steps from the governments and public health authorities are to conduct aggressive diagnostic tests and isolate the patients until the complete recovery of COVID-19. Out of various diagnostic methods, reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) is an appropriate technique. The amplified RNA/DNA molecules can be quantified through quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR). In this chapter, the basics of PCR shall be discussed along with the quantification of RNA from SARS-CoV-2 infected tissue samples.

Keywords: Coronavirus, COVID-19, Diagnosis, PCR, qPCR, RT-PCR.