A decoy microrobot that removes SARS-CoV-2 and its variants in wastewater

Jialin Lai; Qian-Fang Meng; Mingyao Tian; Xinyu Zhuang; Pan Pan; Liang Du; Lin Deng; Jinyao Tang; Ningyi Jin; Lang Rao

doi:10.1016/j.xcrp.2022.101061

A decoy microrobot that removes SARS-CoV-2 and its variants in wastewater

Cell Rep Phys Sci. 2022 Oct 19;3(10):101061. doi: 10.1016/j.xcrp.2022.101061. Epub 2022 Sep 21.

Authors

Jialin Lai^{1

2}, Qian-Fang Meng¹, Mingyao Tian³, Xinyu Zhuang³, Pan Pan⁴, Liang Du⁵, Lin Deng⁶, Jinyao Tang², Ningyi Jin³, Lang Rao¹

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Biomedical Health Technology and Engineering, Shenzhen Bay Laboratory, Shenzhen 518132, China.
² Department of Chemistry, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong 999077, China.
³ Changchun Veterinary Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Changchun 130122, China.
⁴ State Key Laboratory of Virology, College of Life Sciences, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China.
⁵ School of Physics and Technology, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China.
⁶ Institute of Molecular Physiology, Shenzhen Bay Laboratory, Shenzhen 518132, China.

Abstract

The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which can persist in wastewater for several days, has a risk of waterborne-human transmission. The emergence of SARS-CoV-2 variants with increased infection capacity further highlights the need to remove the virus and restrict its spread in wastewater. Here, we report a decoy microrobot created by camouflaging algae with cell membranes displaying angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) for effective elimination of SARS-CoV-2 and its variants. The decoy microrobots show fast self-propulsion (>85 μm/s), allowing for successful "on-the-fly" elimination of SARS-CoV-2 spike proteins and pseudovirus in wastewater. Moreover, relying on the robust binding between ACE2 and SARS-CoV-2 variants, the decoy microrobots exhibit a broad-spectrum elimination of virus with a high efficiency of 95% for the wild-type strain, 92% for the Delta variant, and 93% for the Omicron variant, respectively. Our work presents a simple and safe decoy microrobot aimed toward eliminating viruses and other environmental hazards from wastewater.

Keywords: ACE2 decoy; COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; cell membrane camouflaging; microrobots.