Preparation of a Chimeric Armored RNA as a Versatile Calibrator for Multiple Virus Assays

As with all diagnostic techniques, molecular testing requires careful quality control (1)(2)(3). In detection of RNA viruses, which are often present at low concentrations and are prone to degradation, stringent monitoring is needed for all aspects of assay performance, including virus lysis, RNA isolation, reverse transcription, amplification, and detection steps. Among many proposed RNA control preparations (4)(5), armored RNA is currently the most suitable for clinical applications as it carries the viral RNA target of interest in a form that is ribonuclease-resistant, noninfectious, and stable after prolonged incubation in clinical matrices, and the preparations are substantially less expensive to manufacture than virusinfected plasma (6)(7)(8). Thus, armored RNA has been applied as a positive control for a variety of RNA viruses (9).Because most commercial armored RNA preparations contain exogenous sequences of <500 nucleotides (9), separate armored RNA …