TY  - INPR
A1  - Wilhelm, Alexander
A1  - Schoth, Jens
A1  - Meinert-Berning, Christina
A1  - Bastian, Daniel
A1  - Ciesek, Sandra
A1  - Teichgräber, Burkhard
A1  - Wintgens, Thomas
A1  - Weber, Frank-Andreas
A1  - Widera, Marek
T1  - Early detection of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron BA.4/5 in German wastewater
T2  - medRxiv
N2  - Wastewater-based SARS-CoV-2 epidemiology (WBE) has been established as an important tool to support individual testing strategies. Omicron sub-variants BA.4/5 have spread globally displacing the predeceasing variants. Due to the severe transmissibility and immune escape potential of BA.4/5, early monitoring was required to asses and implement countermeasures in time.
In this study, we monitored the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 BA.4/5 at six municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in the Federal State of North-Rhine-Westphalia (NRW, Germany) in May and June 2022. Initially, L452R-specific primers/probes originally designed for SARS-CoV-2 Delta detection were validated using inactivated authentic viruses and evaluated for their suitability to detect BA.4/5. Subsequently, the assay was used for RT-qPCR analysis of RNA purified from wastewater obtained twice a week at six WWTPs. The occurrence of L452R carrying RNA was detected in early May 2022 and the presence of BA.4/5 was confirmed by variant-specific single nucleotide polymorphism PCR (SNP-PCR) targeting E484A/F486V. Finally, the mutant fractions were quantitatively monitored by digital PCR confirming BA.4/5 as the majority variant by 5th June 2022.
In conclusions, the successive workflow using RT-qPCR, variant-specific SNP-PCR, and RT-dPCR demonstrates the strength of WBE as a versatile tool to rapidly monitor variant spreading independent of individual test capacities.
Y1  - 2022
UR  - http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/75074
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-750749
UR  - https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.07.27.22278003v1
IS  - 2022.07.27.22278003 Version 1
ER  -