Two researchers at the University of Wyoming have developed a COVID-19 test that can detect antigens in a person at a rate that competes with other rapid tests.
The test provides benefits over other tests in that it can be used as a handheld device, provide information with relatively high accuracy, and provide results in roughly 30 minutes.
“Our test detects the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein. The time to result for our test is on par with other tests that detect SARS-CoV-2 proteins,” says Karen Wawrousek, an assistant professor in the UW Department of Chemical Engineering.
“Our test is more sensitive than those rapid tests because of the design of the assay and the detection method we use,” Wawrousek said.
Wawrousek was a co-corresponding author of the paper “Rapid, Point-of-Care scFv-SERS Assay for Femtogram Level Detection of SARS-CoV-2,” which was published in the ACS Sensors journal on March 10, 2022.
Additional input was provided by Gerard Wall, a senior lecturer and personal professor in the Department of Microbiology at NUI Galway, as a co-corresponding author, and Patrick Johnson, a UW professor of chemical engineering and head of the Department of Chemical Engineering, as a co-collaborator on the project.
“When the COVID-19 pandemic started, there was an essential need to develop a rapid, sensitive assay that could aid in surveillance screening of pre-symptomatic and asymptomatic populations. Early diagnosis and rapid isolation of these people could help decrease further transmission,” Moein Mohammadi, a UW Ph. D. student in chemical engineering and the paper’s co-first author, said.
“The gold standard for SARS-CoV-2 detection, RT-PCR, was not ideal for large-scale screening since it was expensive, slow, and requires people to wait in urgent care centers, hospitals, or at home until they receive a diagnosis, which has transmission risk.”
“So, we started thinking to develop a fast, ultrasensitive assay to detect SARS-CoV-2 with the considerable experience Dr. Karen Wawrousek and Dr. Patrick Johnson had in developing colloidal and surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) immunoassays.”
The project started in September 2020 and took roughly one year to complete.
In the end, the team developed a rapid nasal test that people can use to swab their noses and detect the COVID-19 virus.
“We sought to develop an assay that would be closer to the sensitivity of PCR-based assays, but without the delays associated with sending a sample to a laboratory for PCR-based analysis,” Wawrousek said. “The rapid receipt of a reliable diagnosis can allow people to modify their behaviors accordingly to reduce disease spread.”
The test is not yet being used for clinical samples and does not have Food and Drug Administration approval or emergency use authorization.
Part of the funding for the research came from a COVID Innovations grant from UW paid for with CARES Act funds.
Wawrousek had an active National Institutes of Health Wyoming IDEA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence grant during the research.
“I hope I have the opportunity in the future to continue working on diagnostic assays to help control pandemics and diseases and make the world a healthier place,” Moein Mohammadi said.
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