Products not licensed with Health Canada and not FDA cleared or approved. Kits not available in all countries.
The AltoStar® MERS-CoV RT-PCR Kit 1.5 is an in vitro diagnostic test, based on real-time PCR technology, for the qualitative detection of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) specific RNA in human nasopharyngeal swabs. It is intended to be used as an aid for diagnosis of MERS-CoV infection.
Key features
- Detection of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) specific RNA
- Consists of two independent assays, one targeting a region upstream of the E gene (upE) as well as a region of the N gene and the other targeting open reading frame 1a (orf1a) of the MERS-CoV genome.
- CE-IVD marked in vitro diagnostic test
- Analytical sensitivity reported in copies/ml
Limit of detection (LoD)
| LoD upE + N gene | 72.9 copies/ml |
| LoD orf1a | 332 copies/ml |
Sample types
The following sample type is validated for use with the AltoStar® MERS-CoV RT-PCR Kit 1.5:
- Human nasopharyngeal swabs
Other workflows
The AltoStar® MERS-CoV RT-PCR Kit 1.5 can be used with compatible workflows (manual or automated). Real-time PCR instruments that have been validated for use with the AltoStar® MERS-CoV RT-PCR Kit 1.5 are:
- CFX96™ Deep Well Dx System (Bio-Rad)
- CFX96™ Dx System (Bio-Rad)
- ABI Prism® 7500 SDS (Applied Biosystems)
- LightCycler® 480 Instrument II (Roche)
- QuantStudio™ 5 Real-Time PCR System (Applied Biosystems)
- Rotor-Gene® Q5/6 plex Platform (QIAGEN)
The AltoStar® MERS-CoV RT-PCR Kit 1.5 can be used with nucleic acid extraction systems other than the AltoStar® AM16. Alternative procedures used for nucleic acid extraction have to be validated by the user.
