CeO2@NH2 functionalized electrodes for the rapid detection of SARS-CoV-2 spike receptor binding domain

Ayu Triastuti; Salma Nur Zakiyyah; Shabarni Gaffar; Isa Anshori; Akhmadi Surawijaya; Darmawan Hidayat; Hesti Lina Wiraswati; Muhammad Yusuf; Yeni Wahyuni Hartati

doi:10.1039/d2ra07560a

CeO₂@NH₂ functionalized electrodes for the rapid detection of SARS-CoV-2 spike receptor binding domain

RSC Adv. 2023 Feb 16;13(9):5874-5884. doi: 10.1039/d2ra07560a. eCollection 2023 Feb 14.

Authors

Ayu Triastuti¹, Salma Nur Zakiyyah¹, Shabarni Gaffar^{1

2}, Isa Anshori^{2

3}, Akhmadi Surawijaya⁴, Darmawan Hidayat⁵, Hesti Lina Wiraswati⁶, Muhammad Yusuf^{1

2}, Yeni Wahyuni Hartati^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Universitas Padjadjaran Indonesia yeni.w.hartati@unpad.ac.id.
² Moleculer Biotechnology and Bioinformatics Research Center, Universitas Padjadjaran Indonesia isaa@staff.stei.itb.ac.id isa_anshori@stei.itb.ac.id.
³ Lab-on-Chip Group, Biomedical Engineering Department, School of Electrical Engineering and Informatics, Bandung Institute of Technology Indonesia.
⁴ Center of Excellence on Microelectronics, School of Electrical Engineering and Informatics, Bandung Institute of Technology Bandung Indonesia.
⁵ Department of Electrical Engineering, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Universitas Padjadjaran Indonesia.
⁶ Department of Parasitology Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Padjadjaran Indonesia.

Abstract

A detection method based on an electrochemical aptasensor has been developed as an alternative fast, portable, simple, inexpensive, and high-accuracy detection method for detecting the SARS-CoV-2 Spike Receptor Binding Domain (spike RBD). The CeO₂@NH₂ functionalized Screen Printed Carbon Electrode (SPCE) was used to immobilize an aminated aptamer of spike RBD protein via glutaraldehyde as a linker. The aptamer's interaction with the SARS-CoV-2 Spike RBD was measured via the [Fe(CN)₆]^4-/3- redox system signal. Experimental conditions were optimized using a Box-Behnken experimental design and showed that the optimal conditions of the SARS-CoV-2 aptasensor were 1.5 ng mL^-1 of aptamer, immobilization of aptamer for 60 minutes, and Spike RBD incubation for 10 minutes. The developed aptasensor was able to detect the standard SARS-CoV-2 Spike RBD with a detection limit of 0.017 ng mL^-1 in the range of 0.001-100 ng mL^-1. This aptasensor was used to detect salivary and oropharyngeal swab samples of normal individuals with the addition of Spike RBD, and the recoveries were 92.96% and 96.52%, respectively. The testing on nasopharyngeal swab samples of COVID-19 patients showed that the aptasensor results were comparable with the qRT-PCR results. Thus, the developed aptasensor has the potential to be applied as a SARS-CoV-2 rapid test method for clinical samples.