Author(s)

Albina Makio¹, Robinson Mugasiali Irekwa^2#*, Matthew Mutinda Munyao^2*, Caroline Wangui Njoroge^2*, Peter Kipkemboi Rotich², Tonny Teya Nyandwaro², Joanne Jepkemei Yego², Anne Wanjiru Mwangi³, James Hungo Kimotho³, Ronald Tanui⁴, Vincent Rutto^4,5, Samson Muuo Nzou^2*

¹Center for Traditional Medicine and Drug Research, Kenya Medical Research Institute, Nairobi, Kenya.
²Center for Microbiology Research, Kenya Medical Research Institute, Nairobi, Kenya.
³Production Department, Kenya Medical Research Institute, Nairobi, Kenya.
⁴Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa.
⁵Center for Virus Research, Kenya Medical Research Institute, Nairobi, Kenya.

The discovery of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) in Wuhan, Hubei province, China, in December 2019 raised global health warnings. Quickly, in 2020, the virus crossed borders and infected individuals across the world, evolving into the COVID-19 pandemic. Notably, early signs of the virus’s existence were observed in various countries before the initial outbreak in Wuhan. As of 12^th of April, the respiratory disease had infected over 762 million people worldwide, with over 6.8 million deaths recorded. This has led scientists to focus their efforts on understanding the virus to develop effective means to diagnose, treat, prevent, and control this pandemic. One of the areas of focus is the isolation of this virus, which plays a crucial role in understanding the viral dynamics in the laboratory. In this study, we report the isolation and detection of locally circulating SARS-CoV-2 in Kenya. The isolates were cultured on Vero Cercopithecus cell line (CCL-81) cells, RNA extraction was conducted from the supernatants, and reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Genome sequencing was done to profile the strains phylogenetically and identify novel and previously reported mutations. Vero CCL-81 cells were able to support the growth of SARS-CoV-2 in vitro, and mutations were detected from the two isolates sequenced (001 and 002). Genome sequencing revealed the circulation of two isolates that share a close relationship with the Benin isolate with the D614G common mutation identified along the S protein. These virus isolates will be expanded and made available to the Kenya Ministry of Health and other research institutions to advance SARS-CoV-2 research in Kenya and the region.

SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19, Whole Genome Sequencing, Phylogenetic Analysis, Nucleotide Substitutions, Amino Acid Changes

Makio, A. , Irekwa, R. , Munyao, M. , Njoroge, C. , Rotich, P. , Nyandwaro, T. , Yego, J. , Mwangi, A. , Kimotho, J. , Tanui, R. , Rutto, V. and Nzou, S. (2024) Isolation and Characterization of SARS-CoV-2 in Kenya. American Journal of Molecular Biology, 14, 66-83. doi: 10.4236/ajmb.2024.142006.