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This study investigated the infectivity of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS-CoV-2) in individuals who re-tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 RNA after recovering from their primary illness. We investigated 295 individuals with re-positive SARS-CoV-2 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test results and 836 of their close contacts. We attempted virus isolation in individuals with re-positive SARS-CoV-2 PCR test results using cell culture and confirmed the presence of neutralizing antibodies using serological tests. Viral culture was negative in all 108 individuals with re-positive SARS-CoV-2 PCR test results in whom viral culture was performed. Three new cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection were identified among household contacts using PCR. Two of the three new cases had had contact with the index patient during their primary illness, and all three had antibody evidence of past infection. Thus, there was no laboratory evidence of viral shedding and no epidemiological evidence of transmission among individuals with re-positive SARS-CoV-2 PCR test results.

The single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs13438494 in intron 24 of PCLO was significantly associated with bipolar disorder in a meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies. In this study, we performed functional minigene analysis and bioinformatics prediction of splicing regulatory sequences to characterize the deep intronic SNP rs13438494. We constructed minigenes with A and C alleles containing exon 24, intron 24, and exon 25 of PCLO to assess the genetic effect of rs13438494 on splicing. We found that the C allele of rs13438494 reduces the splicing efficiency of the PCLO minigene. In addition, prediction analysis of enhancer/silencer motifs using the Human Splice Finder web tool indicated that rs13438494 induces the abrogation or creation of such binding sites. Our results indicate that rs13438494 alters splicing efficiency by creating or disrupting a splicing motif, which functions by binding of splicing regulatory proteins, and may ultimately result in bipolar disorder in affected people.