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Development of a Quantitative Recombinase Polymerase Amplification Assay with an Internal Positive Control
Published on: March 30, 2015
Evaluation of 5 Polymerase Chain Reaction Assays for the Detection of Mpox Virus
Ramzi Fattouh1,2,3, Karel Boissinot1, Esther Jeong1
1Department of Laboratory Medicine, St Michael's Hospital, Unity Health Toronto, Toronto, Canada.
Background:
In 2022, the global dissemination of mpox virus (MPXV) outside endemic regions prompted the expansion of diagnostic testing worldwide. This study assesses the performance characteristics of 5 real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays in detecting MPXV during the 2022 outbreak.
Methods:
Clinical specimens collected from patients across Ontario, Canada, were tested on the following assays: RealStar Orthopoxyvirus PCR and FlexStar Monkeypox virus PCR (Altona Diagnostics), Novaplex MPXV (Seegene), VIASURE Monkeypox virus Real Time PCR Reagents (CerTest Biotec), and a laboratory-developed test. Positive percent agreement (PPA), negative percent agreement (NPA), relative limit of detection (LOD), and precision were evaluated and MPXV lineages were determined using an amplicon-based whole-genome sequencing (WGS) assay.
Results:
Swabs were collected from various anatomic sites (65 positive and 30 negative). All assays demonstrated 100% NPA (95% confidence interval, 88.4%/88.1%-100.0%), with PPA ranging from 92.2% (82.7%-97.4%) to 96.9% (89.3%-99.6%). LOD and precision were comparable across assays, with coefficient of variations <3%. WGS analysis identified 6 lineages, all belonging to subclade IIb.
Conclusions:
The assays exhibited excellent PPA, NPA, LOD, and precision. Ongoing performance monitoring is essential to detect assay escape mutants and ensure universal detection of evolving MPXV strains.
