• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• 제31권3호
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• pp.358-367
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• 2021

The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) as an international health emergency. Current diagnostic tests are based on the reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) method, which is the gold standard test that involves the amplification of viral RNA. However, the RT-qPCR assay has limitations in terms of sensitivity and quantification. In this study, we tested both qPCR and droplet digital PCR (ddPCR) to detect low amounts of viral RNA. The cycle threshold (CT) of the viral RNA by RT-PCR significantly varied according to the sequences of the primer and probe sets with in vitro transcript (IVT) RNA or viral RNA as templates, whereas the copy number of the viral RNA by ddPCR was effectively quantified with IVT RNA, cultured viral RNA, and RNA from clinical samples. Furthermore, the clinical samples were assayed via both methods, and the sensitivity of the ddPCR was determined to be equal to or more than that of the RT-qPCR. However, the ddPCR assay is more suitable for determining the copy number of reference materials. These findings suggest that the qPCR assay with the ddPCR defined reference materials could be used as a highly sensitive and compatible diagnostic method for viral RNA detection.

• BMB Reports
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• 제39권1호
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• pp.9-15
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• 2006

To prove whether error catastrophe /lethal mutagenesis is the primary antiviral mechanism of action of ribavirin against foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV). Ribavirin passage experiments were performed and supernatants of $Rp_1$ to $Rp_5$ were harvested. Morphological alterations as well as the levels of viral RNAs, proteins, and infectious particles in the BHK-21 cells infected using the supernatants of $Rp_1$ to $Rp_5$ and control were measured by microscope, real-time RT-PCR, western-blotting and plaque assays, respectively. The mutation frequency was measured by sequencing the complete P1- and 3D-encoding region of FMDV after a single round of virus infection from ribavirin-treated or untreated FMDV-infected cells. Ribavirin treatment for FMDV caused dramatically inhibition of multiplication in cell cultures. The levels of viral RNAs, proteins, and infectious particles in the BHK-21 cells infected were more greatly reduced along with the passage from $Rp_1$ to $Rp_5$, moreover, nucleocapsid protein could not be detected and no recovery of infectious virus in the supernatant or detection of intracellular viral RNA was observed at the $Rp_5$-infected cells. A high mutation rate, giving rise to an 8-and 11-fold increase in mutagenesis and resulting in some amino acid substitutions, was found in viral RNA synthesized at a single round of virus infection in the presence of ribavirin of $1000\;{\mu}M$ and caused a 99.7% loss in viral infectivity in contrast with parallel untreated control virus. These results suggest that the antiviral molecular mechanism of ribavirin is based on the lethal mutagenesis/error catastrophe, that is, the ribavirin is not merely an antiviral reagent but also an effective mutagen.

• 대한임상검사과학회지
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• 제52권4호
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• pp.297-309
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• 2020

코로나바이러스는 본래 자연동물숙주에 한정된 엔주틱 감염으로 발견되었으나, 이후 일부 종들은 동물-인간 종의 장벽을 넘어 인간에게 주노틱 감염을 확립하기 위해 진행되었다. 이에 따라 이종 간 장벽의 점프로 인해 사스-코로나바이러스, 메르스-코로나바이러스 그리고 사스- 코로나바이러스2 등의 치명적인 인간 바이러스로 나타났다. 코로나바이러스에는 스파이크, 막, 외피 그리고 뉴클레오캡시드 단백질의 4가지 주요 단백질이 함유되어 있다. 코로나바이러스의 복제 주기는 세포 이입, 게놈 번역, 복제, 조립 그리고 방출로 이어진다. 이들은 2002년 중국 광동성 사스-코로나바이러스가 발병하기 전까지 인간에게 고병원성으로 여겨지지 않았다. 그러나 2002년 중증 급성 호흡기 증후군이 세계적으로 8,422명이 발병하고, 치사율이 11%에 이르는 유행병으로 발생했다. 메르스 코로나바이러스는 낙타 코로나바이러스와 연관성이 높다. 2019년 12월 중국 우한에서 발생한 발병으로 2019-nCoV에 감염된 환자의 군집이 확인되었으며, 곧 전 세계로 확산되었다. 2019-nCoV는 호흡기를 통해 전파된 후 심할 경우 폐렴도 유발할 수 있다. 이 바이러스의 확인에는 감염자의 상기호흡기 표본 검체에 기초한 분자진단법이 사용되었다. 이 리뷰에서는 우리는 바이러스의 구조와 유전적 구성뿐 아니라 생명주기, 진단과 잠재적 치료법을 검토하였다.