Comparison of the NucliSens easyMAG and Qiagen BioRobot 9604 Nucleic Acid Extraction Systems for Detection of RNA and DNA Respiratory Viruses in Nasopharyngeal Aspirate Samples

Abstract

The NucliSens easyMAG and BioRot 9604 automated nucleic acid extraction systems were evaluated and compared with the manual QIAamp (Qiagen) extraction method for their abilities to extract nucleic acid from nasopharyngeal aspirate samples for the detection of RNA and DNA respiratory viruses. The nucleic acids recovered by all three methods gave comparable sensitivities in PCR tests, and the three methods gave comparable viral loads. There was no evidence of residual PCR inhibitors and no evidence of PCR cross-contamination.