ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Microbiol.
Sec. Virology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2025.1654224
Isolation of a SARS-CoV-2 strain from pediatric patients in South Korea: Biologic and genetic characterization
Provisionally accepted
Hee Chun Chung1
Sungjae Kim2
Su Jin Hwang1Sung Hoon Park1Kyoung Min Park3
Hyeon Woo Chung1Si Hwan Ko1Dong il Park3Jun Yeop Shim3
Van Giap Nguyen4*Jae Myun Lee1- 1College of Medicine, Yonsei University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
- 2Kyungbok University - Namyangju Campus, Namyangju-si, Republic of Korea
- 3RNF Chemical Co., Ltd, A7-011, 550, Hanam-si, Republic of Korea
- 4Vietnam National University of Agriculture, Hanoi, Vietnam
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A SARS-CoV-2, N15 strain was successfully isolated from the nasal swab of a pediatric patient after five blind passages in Vero cells. The biological properties of this isolate were investigated extensively. Cytopathic effects (CPE) were observed within 48 hours post- infection, characterized by aggregates of dead cells. The N15 isolate replicated in Vero cells with kinetics comparable to those of SARS-CoV-2 lineages B.1 and B.1.1.529. Genetic analyses revealed that the strain belongs to the 19B lineage of SARS-CoV-2, showing 99.9% similarity to the original Wuhan 1 strain. Importantly, the N15 strain possessed rare mutations N709S in the spike protein and T11M in the E protein. Drug testing indicated that Remdesivir, Molnupiravir, and Nirmatrelvir effectively inhibited this isolate at varying concentrations. The N15 isolate may serve as a valuable material for comparative studies with currently circulating SARS-CoV-2 variants.
Keywords: SARS-CoV-2, Pediatric patient, Biology, Genetic characterization, N15 strain
Received: 26 Jun 2025; Accepted: 15 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Chung, Kim, Hwang, Park, Park, Chung, Ko, Park, Shim, Nguyen and Lee. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Van Giap Nguyen, Vietnam National University of Agriculture, Hanoi, Vietnam
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