Analysis of viral presence and kinetics in different clinical samples obtained from asymptomatic and symptomatic individuals infected by SARS-CoV-2

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) was identified as the etiologic agent of atypical pneumonia (COVID-19) in January 2020 in Hubei Province, China. In just 3 months the virus caused a pandemic, infecting more than 380 thousand individuals and causing more than 16 thousand to die. Despite the large number of cases, and the presence of human-to-human transmission, the forms of viral transmission are not fully recognized. In the present study, we propose the analysis of the presence of viral RNA in samples of different natures including naso- and oropharyngeal swabs, blood, serum, phlegm, feces, urine, semen and tears during the first week of symptoms of individuals not hospitalized or admitted to the Hospital University. Hospitalized patients will also have nasopharyngeal lavage and bronchoalveolar lavage samples collected to compare the amount of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in each of the samples. Diagnostic assays will be initially performed following the protocol established by Corman et al (2020) and the Ct values ​​obtained from Real Time PCR assays will be used as an indication of the amount of viral RNA in each of the samples. Samples of different natures showing Ct below 20 will be used for inoculation into Vero E6 cells to identify the presence of infective virus in unusual samples such as feces, urine and tears in case of positivity. The analysis of viral presence and in blood may indicate the possibility of systemic infections. We expect to collect samples from 30 patients totaling about 210 samples