Hi,
We are working on the genetics of COVID19 infection although from the perspective of host genetics. Someone asked me whether the human DNA that we need to use may transmit the disease. Although I am pretty sure that the process of purification of the DNA from blood makes it quite unlikely that any viral particle can contaminate the sample, I do not have (nor find) any paper or document proving that idea. Does anybody has a reference to support this (or the contrary)?
Thanks,
Dear Dr Jordi!
Please You look at this publication:
https://www.news-medical.net/news/20200519/Does-COVID-19-infect-peripheral-blood-cells.aspx
The current report is, however, the first to show the presence of viral RNA in PBMC. In fact, a prior study that examined RNA isolated from PBMC made it clear that no viral sequences were found.
The researchers used high-throughput sequencing, which has been demonstrated to be effective in identifying and measuring the number of viral particles in the blood. For this reason, they used this method to do a comprehensive search for viral RNA sequences within the only public dataset now available. They found that viral RNA was present within all BAL samples, at a concentration of 2.15% of the total RNA. Two RNA reads corresponded to the SARS-CoV-2 genome. However, as expected, the PBMC from the controls did not contain any RNA.
Thanks Ijaz Durrani
and Alexandr Chernov for yous suggestions. None of those really address my question, whether purified DNA from blood cells could carry viable viral particles, although they were interesting.
Dear Dr Jordi,
I understand your question.
If we address the situation that coronaviruses may originate from respication mashinery of DNA viruses, in this case hepatitis B virus, well, Yes, there may be pieces of forgotten DNA needed for coronavirus initial stages of replication.
An interesting paper is given below.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10998339/
This HBV involvement in coronaviruses is completely neglected and it may hide real facts on coronavirus transmission.
Let me also remind you of a forgoten paper from lancet 1971, which requires attention.
Article Australia antigen, coronavirus, and reverse transcriptase in...
Best
Dr A.M.Kyriakopoulos MD/Ph.D.FIBMS