{"doi":"10.1371/journal.pone.0252687","title":"Inactivation of SARS-CoV-2 virus in saliva using a guanidium based transport medium suitable for RT-PCR diagnostic assays","abstract":"BACKGROUND: Upper respiratory samples used to test for SARS-CoV-2 virus may be infectious and present a hazard during transport and testing. A buffer with the ability to inactivate SARS-CoV-2 at the time of sample collection could simplify and expand testing for COVID-19 to non-conventional settings. METHODS: We evaluated a guanidium thiocyanate-based buffer, eNAT™ (Copan) as a possible transport and inactivation medium for downstream Reverse Transcriptase-Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) testing to detect SARS-CoV-2. Inactivation of SARS-CoV-2 USA-WA1/2020 in eNAT and in diluted saliva was studied at different incubation times. The stability of viral RNA in eNAT was also evaluated for up to 7 days at room temperature (28°C), refrigerated conditions (4°C) and at 35°C. RESULTS: SARS-COV-2 virus spiked directly in eNAT could be inactivated at >5.6 log10 PFU/ml within a minute of incubation. When saliva was diluted 1:1 in eNAT, no cytopathic effect (CPE) on VeroE6 cells was observed, although SARS-CoV-2 RNA could be detected even after 30 min incubation and after two cell culture passages. A 1:2 (saliva:eNAT) dilution abrogated both CPE and detectable viral RNA after as little as 5 min incubation in eNAT. SARS-CoV-2 RNA from virus spiked at 5X the limit of detection remained positive up to 7 days of incubation in all tested conditions. CONCLUSION: eNAT and similar guanidinium thiocyanate-based media may be of value for transport, stabilization, and processing of clinical samples for RT-PCR based SARS-CoV-2 detection.","journal":"PLoS ONE","year":2021,"id":187863,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":17,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9593,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2021-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":748864,"name":"Kaheerman Saibire","orcid":null,"position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":408052,"name":"Shraddha Suryavanshi","orcid":null,"position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":748865,"name":"Glenn Johns","orcid":null,"position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":419948,"name":"Soumitesh Chakravorty","orcid":"0000-0001-5499-0204","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":748036,"name":"Robert Kwiatkowski","orcid":"0000-0002-7892-2799","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":292870,"name":"David Alland","orcid":"0000-0001-5196-1571","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":659992,"name":"Padmapriya P. Banada","orcid":"0000-0002-5217-6142","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":660967,"name":"Sukalyani Banik","orcid":null,"position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":26,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-18T23:49:05.976005Z","pmid":"34115762","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}