Role of molecular tools and serology tests in the diagnosis of the novel coronavirus: SARS-CoV-2

Abstract

Since the emergenceof severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) and Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV), it has become increasingly clear that bats are important reservoirs of coronaviruses. This investigation, with the apparition of the new coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 in Wuhan (China, December 2019), has shown 96.2% sequence similarity with the bat coronavirus. Through this review, we report the characterization of a SARS-CoV-2. The virus belongs to the Betacoronavirusgenera and shares less than 80% of identity with the SARS-CoV. This similarity was helpful to develop RT-PCR and other tools involved in SARS-CoV-2 RNA detection. We also report the importance of the different molecular tools and, the possible use of serology tests in the diagnosis of COVID-19. We discussed the strengths and weaknesses of each of these methods.