Point-of-care system for rapid real-time detection of SARS-CoV-2 virus based on commercially available Arduino platforms

Huynh Van Ngoc; Than Linh Quyen; Aaydha Chidambara Vinayaka; Dang Duong Bang; Anders Wolff

doi:10.3389/fbioe.2022.917573

Point-of-care system for rapid real-time detection of SARS-CoV-2 virus based on commercially available Arduino platforms

Front Bioeng Biotechnol. 2022 Aug 4:10:917573. doi: 10.3389/fbioe.2022.917573. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Huynh Van Ngoc¹, Than Linh Quyen¹, Aaydha Chidambara Vinayaka², Dang Duong Bang², Anders Wolff¹

Affiliations

¹ BioLabChip Group, Department of Biotechnology and Biomedicine, Technical University of Denmark (DTU-Bioengineering), Lyngby, Denmark.
² Laboratory of Applied Micro and Nanotechnology (LAMINATE), Department of Biotechnology and Biomedicine, Technical University of Denmark (DTU-Bioengineering), Lyngby, Denmark.

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic emphasized the importance of rapid, portable, and on-site testing technologies necessary for resource-limited settings for effective testing and screening to reduce spreading of the infection. Realizing this, we developed a fluorescence-based point-of-care (fPOC) detection system with real-time reverse transcriptase loop-mediated isothermal amplification for rapid and quantitative detection of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) virus. The system is built based on the Arduino platform compatible with commercially available open-source hardware-software and off-the-shelf electronic components. The fPOC system comprises of three main components: 1) an instrument with integrated heaters, 2) optical detection components, and 3) an injection-molded polymeric cartridge. The system was tested and experimentally proved to be able to use for fast detection of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in real-time in less than 30 min. Preliminary results of testing the performance of the fPOC revealed that the fPOC could detect the SARS-CoV-2 virus at a limit of detection (LOD_50%) at two to three copies/microliter (15.36 copies/reaction), which was comparable to reactions run on a standard commercial thermocycler. The performance of the fPOC was evaluated with 12 SARS-CoV-2 clinical throat swab samples that included seven positive and five negative samples, as confirmed by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction. The fPOC showed 100% agreement with the commercial thermocycler. This simple design of the fPOC system demonstrates the potential to greatly enhance the practical applicability to develop a totally integrated point-of-care system for rapid on-site screening of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in the management of the pandemic.

Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-cov-2; fluorescence detection; lab-on-chip; loop-mediated isothermal amplification; open-source software-hardware; point-of-care; rapid diagnostic.