During the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus type 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic, chlorine-containing disinfectants have been widely used in nucleic acid amplification testing laboratories. Whether the use of disinfectants affect the results of viral nucleic acid amplification is unknown. We examined the impact of different hypochlorous acid (HOCl) concentrations on the quantitative results of SARS-CoV-2 by real-time reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). We also explored the mechanisms and models of action of chlorine-containing disinfectants that affected the detection of SARS-CoV-2. The results showed that different HOCl concentrations and different action times had an impact on the SARS-CoV-2 results. High concentrations of ambient HOCl have a greater impact than low concentrations, and this effect will increase with the extension of the action time and with the increase in ambient humidity. Compared with the enzymes or the extracted RNA required for RT-PCR, the impact of HOCl on the SARS-CoV-2 detection is more likely to be caused by damage to primers and probes in the PCR system. The false negative result still existed after changing the ambient disinfectant to ethanol but not peracetic acid. The use of HOCl in the environment will have an unpredictable impact on the nucleic acid test results of SARS-CoV-2. In order to reduce the possibility of false negative of SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acid test and prevent the spread of epidemic disease, environmental disinfectants should be used at the beginning and end of the experiment rather than during the experimental operation.

中文翻译：

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环境中高浓度次氯酸基消毒剂降低了 SARS-CoV-2 在核酸扩增检测中的负荷

在严重急性呼吸系统综合症冠状病毒 2 (SARS-CoV-2) 大流行期间，含氯消毒剂已广泛应用于核酸扩增检测实验室。消毒剂的使用是否会影响病毒核酸扩增的结果尚不得而知。我们通过实时逆转录聚合酶链反应 (RT-PCR) 检查了不同次氯酸 (HOCl) 浓度对 SARS-CoV-2 定量结果的影响。我们还探讨了影响 SARS-CoV-2 检测的含氯消毒剂的作用机制和模型。结果表明，不同的 HOCl 浓度和不同的作用时间对 SARS-CoV-2 结果有影响。高浓度的环境 HOCl 比低浓度的影响更大，并且这种效果会随着作用时间的延长和环境湿度的增加而增强。与RT-PCR所需的酶或提取的RNA相比，HOCl对SARS-CoV-2检测的影响更可能是由于PCR系统中引物和探针的损坏造成的。将环境消毒剂改为乙醇而不是过氧乙酸后，假阴性结果仍然存在。在环境中使用HOCl会对SARS-CoV-2的核酸检测结果产生不可预测的影响。为减少SARS-CoV-2核酸检测出现假阴性的可能性，防止疫情传播，应在实验开始和结束时使用环境消毒剂，而不是在实验操作过程中使用环境消毒剂。