Abstract
Background
Availability of an international standard will improve the standardization of quantitative PCR (qPCR) for cytomegalovirus (CMV) and Epstein-Barr virus (EBV); however, nucleic acid extraction methods may affect qPCR results. This study was designed to determine whether routine measurement of DNA concentration and purity is required in qPCR for CMV and EBV. In addition, the performance of the automated QIASymphony DSP DNA Mini kit (Qiagen, USA) and the manual QIAamp DNA Blood Mini kit (Qiagen) in extracting DNA from whole blood samples was compared.
Methods
The concentration and purity of 300 extracted DNA samples were determined using a NanoDrop ND-1000 spectrophotometer (Thermo Scientific, USA). A total of 72 and 54 whole blood samples were tested by artus CMV and EBV qPCR (Qiagen), respectively.
Results
No correlation was found between DNA concentration and EBV DNA load or between DNA purity and the PCR inhibition measured by ΔCq (the difference between internal control Cq of the sample and that of the negative control). Quantification of CMV and EBV DNA using the two extraction methods showed highly similar results (rho=0.946 and 0.887, respectively). Of the 29 specimens that yielded CMV DNA by both methods, however, 8 specimens (27.6%) yielded higher CMV DNA loads with QIASymphony.
Figures and Tables
![]() | Fig. 1Distribution of ΔCq (the difference between internal control Cq of sample and that of negative control) in terms of DNA purity. |
![]() | Fig. 2Correlation between copy number of CMV DNA in whole blood after manual extraction by QIAamp DNA Blood Mini kit and automated extraction by QIASymphony DNA Mini kit (Qiagen). Spearman's coefficient of rank correlation (rho)=0.946 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.916-0.966, P<0.0001). |
![]() | Fig. 3Correlation between copy number of EBV DNA in whole blood after manual extraction by QIAamp DNA Blood Mini kit and automated extraction by QIASymphony DNA Mini kit (Qiagen). Spearman's coefficient of rank correlation (rho)=0.887 (95% CI, 0.812-0.933, P<0.0001). |
Table 1
Effects of DNA concentration on determination of EBV DNA load and DNA purity

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