Integrating Water Purification with Electrochemical Aptamer Sensing for Detecting SARS-CoV-2 in Wastewater

• DOI: 10.1021/acssensors.2c02655
• Publication Date: 2023-03-17T11:18:23Z
• Authors: Payel Sen; Zijie Zhang; Phoebe Li; Bal Ram Adhikari; Tianyi Guo; Jimmy Gu; Adam R MacIntosh; Colin van der Kuur; Yingfu Li; Leyla Soleymani
• Keywords: Aptamer; 2019-20 coronavirus outbreak; Portable water purification

Wastewater analysis of pathogens, particularly SARS-CoV-2, is instrumental in tracking and monitoring infectious diseases a population. This method can be used to generate early warnings regarding the onset an disease predict associated infection trends. Currently, wastewater SARS-CoV-2 almost exclusively performed using polymerase chain reaction for amplification-based detection viral RNA at centralized laboratories. Despite development several biosensing technologies offering point-of-care solutions analyzing clinical samples, these remain elusive due low levels virus interference caused by matrix. Herein, we integrate aptamer-based electrochemical chip with filtration, purification, extraction (FPE) system developing alternate in-field solution analysis. The sensing employs dimeric aptamer, which universally applicable wild-type, alpha, delta, omicron variants SARS-CoV-2. We demonstrate that aptamer stable matrix (diluted 50%) its binding affinity not significantly impacted. demonstrates limit 1000 copies/L (1 copy/mL), enabled amplification provided FPE system. allows integrated detect trace amounts native categorize amount contamination into (<10 copies/mL), medium (10–1000 or high (>1000 copies/mL) levels, providing viable use.