High-sensitivity and point-of-care detection of SARS-CoV-2 from nasal and throat swabs by magnetic SERS biosensor

Yanyan Li; Chenglong Lin; Yusi Peng; Jun He; Yong Yang

doi:10.1016/j.snb.2022.131974

High-sensitivity and point-of-care detection of SARS-CoV-2 from nasal and throat swabs by magnetic SERS biosensor

Sens Actuators B Chem. 2022 Aug 15:365:131974. doi: 10.1016/j.snb.2022.131974. Epub 2022 Apr 28.

Authors

Yanyan Li^{1

2

3}, Chenglong Lin^{1

2

3}, Yusi Peng^{1

2

3}, Jun He^{4

5}, Yong Yang^{1

3}

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of High-Performance Ceramics and Superfine Microstructures, Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 1295 Dingxi Road, Shanghai 200050, People's Republic of China.
² Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, No.19(A) Yuquan Road, Beijing 100049, People's Republic of China.
³ Center of Materials Science and Optoelectronics Engineering, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
⁴ Anhui Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Hefei 12560, Anhui, People's Republic of China.
⁵ Public Health Research Institute of Anhui Province, Hefei 12560, Anhui, People's Republic of China.

Abstract

The outbreak of COVID-19 caused by SARS-CoV-2 urges the development of rapidly and accurately diagnostic methods. Here, one high-sensitivity and point-of-care detection method based on magnetic SERS biosensor composed of Fe₃O₄-Au nanocomposite and Au nanoneedles array was developed to detect SARS-CoV-2 directly. Among, the magnetic Fe₃O₄-Au nanocomposite is applied to capture and separate virus from nasal and throat swabs and enhance the Raman signals of SARS-CoV-2. The magnetic SERS biosensor possessed high sensitivity by optimizing the Fe₃O₄-Au nanocomposite. More significantly, the on-site detection of inactivated SARS-CoV-2 virus was achieved based on the magnetic SERS biosensor with ultra-low limit of detection of 100 copies/mL during 15 mins. Furthermore, the contaminated nasal and throat swabs samples were identified by support vector machine, and the diagnostic accuracy of 100% was obtained. The magnetic SERS biosensor combined with support vector machine provides giant potential as the point-of-care detection tool for SARS-CoV-2.

Keywords: Magnetic enrichment and separation; Point-of-care detection; SARS-CoV-2; SERS biosensors; Support vector machine.