Measuring Dengue Virus RNA in the Culture Supernatant of Infected Cells by Real-time Quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction

At present, real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technology is an indispensable tool for the detection and quantification of viral genomes in research laboratories, as well as for molecular diagnosis, because of its sensitivity, specificity, and convenience. However, in most cases, the quantitative PCR (qPCR) assay generally used to detect virus infection has relied on the purification of viral nucleic acid prior to the PCR step. In this study, the fluorescence-based reverse transcription qPCR (RT-qPCR) assay is developed through the combination of a processing buffer and a one-step RT-PCR reagent so that the whole process, from the harvest of the culture supernatant of virus-infected cells until real-time detection, can be performed without viral RNA purification. The established protocol enables the quantification of a wide range of RNA concentrations of dengue virus (DENV) within 90 min. In addition, the adaptability of the direct RT-qPCR assay to the evaluation of an antiviral agent is demonstrated by an in vitro experiment using a previously reported DENV inhibitor, mycophenolic acid (MPA). Moreover, other RNA viruses, including yellow fever virus (YFV), Chikungunya virus (CHIKV), and measles virus (MeV), can be quantified by direct RT-qPCR with the same protocol. Therefore, the direct RT-qPCR assay described in this report is useful for monitoring RNA virus replication in a simple and rapid manner, which will be further developed into a promising platform for a high-throughput screening study and clinical diagnosis.