Demystifying the principle of new coronavirus nucleic acid detection.

Nucleic acid testing is actually to detect whether there is nucleic acid (RNA) of the new coronavirus in the body of the test subject. The nucleic acid of each virus contains ribonucleotides, and the number and order of ribonucleotides contained in different viruses are different, making each virus specific.
The nucleic acid of the new coronavirus is also unique, and nucleic acid detection is the specific detection of the nucleic acid of the new coronavirus. Before nucleic acid testing, it is necessary to collect samples of the subject’s sputum, throat swab, bronchoalveolar lavage fluid, blood, etc., and by testing these samples, it can be found that the subject’s respiratory tract is infected with bacteria. New coronavirus nucleic acid detection is commonly used for throat swab sample detection. The sample is split and purified, and the possible new coronavirus nucleic acid is extracted from it, and the preparations for the test are ready.

New coronavirus nucleic acid detection mainly uses fluorescence quantitative RT-PCR technology, which is a combination of fluorescence quantitative PCR technology and RT-PCR technology. In the detection process, RT-PCR technology is used to reverse transcribe the nucleic acid (RNA) of the new coronavirus into the corresponding deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA); then fluorescence quantitative PCR technology is used to replicate the obtained DNA in large quantities. The replicated DNA is detected and labeled with a sex probe. If there is a new coronavirus nucleic acid, the instrument can detect the fluorescent signal, and, as the DNA continues to replicate, the fluorescent signal continues to increase, thus indirectly detecting the presence of the new coronavirus.