A method for cleaning of used disposable plastic parts from automated RNA extraction system

During the first wave of COVID-19 worldwide pandemic, the number of testing in Israel was severely affected by the shortage of reagents and consumables required to operate the instrument performing the sample extraction before the reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), namely QIAsymphony instrument (Qiagen, Hilden, Germany). We aimed to develop an assay to clean used plastic ware parts while maintaining the reliability and reproducibility of the RT-PCR testing. Wells, rods cover, and tips used by the QIAsymphony instrument were washed using distilled water, 3% sodium hypochlorite or sodium hydroxide 0.01 M solutions, followed by an additional wash using distilled water and eventually using 3% hydrogen peroxide or ethanol solution. Following overnight drying, the cleaned parts were installed in the QIAsymphony instrument, and the reliability of the results was compared to the set of samples that were analyzed using a new plastic ware. The results of reusing the cleaned sets of consumables were comparable to those of the new sets.