Virus Transport Medium is suitable for the storage and transportation of common virus samples such as novel coronavirus, influenza virus, and hand, foot, and mouth virus. It can be used to store throat swabs, nasal swabs, or specific tissue samples, facilitating subsequent clinical experiments such as nucleic acid extraction or purification. It is usually divided into two types: Standard, which can protect the virus's proteins and nucleic acids, and inactivated, which typically contains an inactivating virus lysis salt to lyse proteins while protecting nucleic acids. Each type has its own different characteristics and applications.
Standard Transport Medium, which does not contain a lysis salt, maintains the integrity of the virus better and has a higher detection rate. It is mainly a virus maintenance solution based on transport medium improvement, which can be used for nucleic acid testing and other research. It mainly consists of Hanks solution, gentamicin, fungicide, BSA-V, glucose, buffer, and other components. It can provide suitable pH, osmotic pressure, and sterile conditions for the growth of virus host cells, prolonging their in vitro survival time and increasing infection stability.
Inactivated Virus Transport Medium, which contains high concentration of lytic salt can quickly disrupt the cell membrane of the virus host cells, denature proteins and cause them to precipitate, thereby releasing the nucleic acid from the protein entanglement in the virus, inhibiting the activity of nucleases, and protecting the virus nucleic acid from degradation. In addition to inactivating the virus and protecting the nucleic acid, the inactivated sample storage solution is more convenient for transporting specimens from various remote and inaccessible collection points to the testing laboratory due to the ability to transport the samples at room temperature after collection compared to non-inactivated sample storage solutions.
Regardless of whether it's standard or inactivated, the virus sampling tube must be strictly inactivated and sterilized before sampling to ensure that there are no other microorganisms inside the tube, which could lead to virus degradation or other influences causing false detection after sampling. After the swab sampling, if substandard sampling tools or preservatives are used, it will affect the subsequent detection results or even lead to misdiagnosis. Therefore, it is crucial to choose virus sampling tubes produced by manufacturers with professional qualifications.
