RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Preliminary support for a “dry swab, extraction free” protocol for SARS-CoV-2 testing via RT-qPCR JF bioRxiv FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory SP 2020.04.22.056283 DO 10.1101/2020.04.22.056283 A1 Sanjay Srivatsan A1 Peter D. Han A1 Katrina van Raay A1 Caitlin R. Wolf A1 Denise J. McCulloch A1 Ashley E. Kim A1 Elisabeth Brandstetter A1 Beth Martin A1 Jase Gehring A1 Wei Chen A1 Seattle Flu Study Investigators A1 Sriram Kosuri A1 Eric Q. Konnick A1 Christina M. Lockwood A1 Mark J. Rieder A1 Deborah A. Nickerson A1 Helen Y. Chu A1 Jay Shendure A1 Lea M. Starita YR 2020 UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/04/23/2020.04.22.056283.abstract AB The urgent need for massively scaled clinical or surveillance testing for SARS-CoV-2 has necessitated a reconsideration of the methods by which respiratory samples are collected, transported, processed and tested. Conventional testing for SARS-CoV-2 involves collection of a clinical specimen with a nasopharyngeal swab, storage of the swab during transport in universal transport medium (UTM), extraction of RNA, and quantitative reverse transcription PCR (RT-qPCR). As testing has scaled across the world, supply chain challenges have emerged across this entire workflow. Here we sought to evaluate how eliminating the UTM storage and RNA extraction steps would impact the results of molecular testing. Using paired mid-turbinate swabs self-collected by 11 individuals with previously established SARS-CoV-2 positivity, we performed a comparison of conventional (swab → UTM → RNA extraction → RT-qPCR) vs. simplified (direct elution from dry swab → RT-qPCR) protocols. Our results suggest that dry swabs eluted directly into a simple buffered solution (TE) can support molecular detection of SARS-CoV-2 via endpoint RT-qPCR without substantially compromising sensitivity. Although further confirmation with a larger sample size and variation of other parameters is necessary, these results are encouraging for the possibility of a simplified workflow that could support massively scaled testing for COVID-19 control.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.