What is nucleic acid?

Nucleic acid is one of the most basic substances in life, and it is a biomacromolecule compound formed by polymerization of various nucleotides, including deoxyribonucleic acid and ribonucleic acid, that is, DNA and RNA commonly used to detect novel coronavirus at present.

Any organism needs to use DNA or RNA as a template to reproduce offspring, so nucleic acid is the material basis of biological inheritance. All living things contain nucleic acids. Novel coronavirus is a virus containing only RNA, which can be distinguished from other pathogens by its specific RNA sequence.

Nucleic acid detection method

After COVID-19 infects the human body, it will first reproduce in the respiratory system, so we can judge whether the human body is infected with the virus by detecting the virus nucleic acid in sputum and nasopharyngeal swab.

In addition, we can also detect nucleic acids in human samples such as bronchial lavage fluid and alveolar lavage fluid. Usually, specific sequences of viruses are detected by fluorescence quantitative PCR. The higher the concentration of viral nucleic acid, the smaller the CT value.