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Research Article
The Impact of Freeze-Thaw Cycles on the Integrity of SARS-CoV-2 Viral Culture Fluids and Clinical Remnant Samples in Antigen or Nucleic Acid Testing
Author(s): Hajirah Noor Hussain, Hali Weeks, Derek Zhou, Divya Joseph, Brooke Lam, Haidong Xu, Chushi Zhang, Keqin Gregg and Wenli Zhou*
Preservation at ultra-low temperatures has been a gold standard for long-term storage of many types of clinical
specimens including the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The frozen specimens can be easily transported and tested later. In
addition, de-identified frozen remnant samples are resources for many preclinical or clinical studies. It is therefore
crucial to understand whether Freeze-Thaw Cycles (FTCs) can adversely affect SARS-CoV-2 test performance
when frozen samples are tested. Some early studies suggest that FTCs increased the Cycle threshold (Ct) of reverse
transcription real-time PCR (RT-PCR or RT-qPCR), indicating the potential degradation of SARS-CoV-2 nucleic
acid after FTCs, while the others did not report any significant changes in SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acids after FTCs.
Moreover, the impact of FTCs on the performance of SARS-CoV-2 antigen test is scarcely reporte.. View more»