Health
Programmed magnetic nanobeads quickly diagnose COVID-19
According to engineers at Rice University, COVID-19 can be diagnosed within 55 minutes with the help of programmed magnetic nanobeads and diagnostic tools that connect to off-the-shelf mobile phones.
Mechanical engineer Peter Lillehoj’s Rice Lab has developed a stamp-sized microfluidic chip that measures the concentration of SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid (N) protein in serum from standard finger stings. The nanobeads bind to the SARS-CoV-2 N protein, a biomarker of COVID-19 in the chip, and transport it to an electrochemical sensor that detects trace amounts of the biomarker.
Researchers argued that the process simplifies sample processing compared to swab-based PCR tests, which are widely used in the diagnosis of COVID-19 and need to be analyzed in the laboratory.
The great thing about this device is that it doesn’t require a laboratory. You can run the entire test and generate results at collection sites, clinics, and even pharmacies. The entire system is easy to carry and use. “
Peter Lillehoj, Mechanical Engineer, Rice University
The study is published in the journal of the American Chemical Society ACS sensor.
Lillehoj and Rice’s graduate student and lead author, Jiran Li, leveraged existing biosensing tools and combined them with their unique experience in developing simple diagnostics, such as the microneedle patch introduced last year to diagnose malaria. It was.
The new tool relies on a slightly more complex detection scheme, but provides accurate and quantitative results in a short amount of time. To test the device, the lab relied on serum samples provided by healthy and COVID-19-positive individuals.
Lillehoj said longer incubations give more accurate results when using whole serum. The laboratory found that the optimal time for a microchip to detect SARS-CoV-2N protein at a low concentration of 50 picograms (1 billionth of a gram) per milliliter in total serum is 55 minutes. I did. Microchip was able to detect even lower concentrations of 10 picograms per milliliter of N protein in just 25 minutes by diluting serum 5-fold.
Combining a Google Pixel 2 smartphone with a plug-in potentiostat, we were able to make a positive diagnosis with a low concentration of 230 picograms of total serum.
“There are standard procedures for modifying beads with antibodies that target specific biomarkers,” says Lillehoj. “When you combine them with samples that contain biomarkers (in this case the SARS-CoV-2 N protein), they bind to each other.”
A capillary tube is used to feed the sample to the chip, placing the chip on a magnet and pulling the beads towards the electrochemical sensor coated with the capture antibody. The beads bind to the capture antibody and generate a current proportional to the concentration of the biomarker in the sample.
Potentiostat reads the current and signals it to the phone app. In the absence of the COVID-19 biomarker, the beads will not bind to the sensor and will be washed away in the chip.
Lillehoj said it’s not difficult for the industry to manufacture microfluidic chips and adapt to new COVID-19 strains as needed.
Source:
Journal reference:
Li, J & Lillehoj, PB, (2021) Microfluidic magnetic immunosensor for rapid and sensitive measurement of SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid protein in serum. ACS sensor.. doi.org/10.1021/acssensors.0c02561..
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