Microbiologic Characteristics, Serologic Responses, and Clinical Manifestations in Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, Taiwan1

Abstract

The genome of one Taiwanese severe acute respiratory syndrome-associated coronavirus (SARS-CoV) strain (TW1) was 29,729 nt in length. Viral RNA may persist for some time in patients who seroconvert, and some patients may lack an antibody response (immunoglobulin G) to SARS-CoV >21 days after illness onset. An upsurge of antibody response was associated with the aggravation of respiratory failure.

Characterization of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus genomes in Taiwan: Molecular epidemiology and genome evolution

“…4. Therefore, our present observation supports the notion that the current SARS virus was not present in humans until recently, which is consistent with the current serological studies (13,37).…”

“…NC 004718) (8). The sequence of the primers and the detailed PCR conditions have been described (13).…”

“…Throat swab specimens were inoculated into Vero E6 cells, cultured, and monitored as described (13). Once the virus-induced cytopathic effects appeared, the culture cell supernatant was harvested and submitted to RNA extraction.…”

“…The viral RNA was extracted with the High Pure Viral Nucleic Acid Kit (Roche Diagnostics Applied Science, Mannheim Germany), either from culture supernatant or from primary nasopharyngeal specimens as described (13).…”

“…In our protocol of full-length sequencing, the SRAS-CoV genomes were divided into 25 fragments for PCR amplification and direct sequencing reactions (13). The sequence representing the dominant viral species was then derived.…”