Developing a Rapid, Simple-to-use Sensory Platform for Detection of Ultralow Concentration of SARS-CoV-2 Viral Particles Enabled by Electrophoretic Enhancement and Redox Cycling

NIH RePORTER · NIH · R21 · $590,800 · view on reporter.nih.gov ↗

Abstract

Abstract: COVID-19 caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) remains an extraordinary global health crisis in the modern history. Meeting the testing needs for clinical diagnosis remains an unmet global challenge. Simple-to-use, sensitive, and rapid diagnostics are therefore urgently needed for early diagnosis of infection. The objective of this research is to design and demonstrate proof-of-principle of a novel low-cost and simple-to-use electrochemical sensing platform to enable rapid, ultrasensitive and accurate detection of SARS-CoV-2 virions in saliva (with accuracy ≥ 90% and total assay time < 30 min). We propose to achieve high sensitivity through two complementary signal amplification schemes, by electrophoretic concentration of virus-magnetic nanoparticle (mNP) conjugates by applying a small voltage on a set of electrodes with sub-micrometer gap, and amplifying electrochemical current through redox cycling between the same set of electrodes. Importantly, the proposed platform is suitable for commercialization by leveraging a low-cost and scalable fabrication method to create the sensor arrays without using expensive and non-scalable nanofabrication techniques. Fast, sensitive, and accurate detection of viral particles enables better surveillance and control of spread of the infection. The proposed platform is simple-to-use and suitable for point-of-care applications by eliminating tedious RNA extraction steps as in RT-PCR methods. It can enable high-throughput testing by creating sensor array on the same chip with small footprint to simultaneously analyze a multitude of sample droplets. The proposed sensory platform can also be expanded to detect other infectious pathogens, including Dengue and Influenza viruses, bacterial pathogens, etc.

Key facts

NIH application ID
10195022
Project number
1R21EB031354-01
Recipient
PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY, THE
Principal Investigator
SeyedehAida Ebrahimi
Activity code
R21
Funding institute
NIH
Fiscal year
2021
Award amount
$590,800
Award type
1
Project period
2021-09-21 → 2025-09-20