DETECTION OF MUTATIONS ASSOCIATED WITH SARS-COV-2 VARIANTS
NGS Solution for SARS-CoV-2 Mutation Identification
Recent reports of potentially more dangerous SARS-CoV-2 variants highlights the need for surveillance to quickly identify changes in the viral genome and contain the spread. These variants are of particular concern because they may spread faster and/or may cause more severe disease. Additionally, variants may impact the performance of current diagnostic approaches or the effectiveness of vaccines.
RT-PCR is the gold standard tool for the detection of COVID-19, due to the inherent benefits of accuracy, sensitivity, speed, and scalability. However, these first-tier detection assays provide limited information about SARS-CoV-2 variants in the sample. Second tier NGS assays can provide information on variants by using a portion of the sample determined to be positive using the first-tier assay.
Whole Genome Sequencing of SARS-CoV-2
The NEXTFLEX® Variant-Seq™ SARS-CoV-2 WGS workflow is a genome-wide, unbiased technique which can identify all SARS-Cov-2 genetic changes without requiring prior knowledge of variants. The high resolution of NGS identifies all current and future variants of concern and is used to understand the epidemiology of SARS-CoV-2 infection.