Development of integrated microfluidic platform coupled with Surface-enhanced Raman Spectroscopy for diagnosis of COVID-19

Abstract

Corona Virus Disease 19 (COVID-19) pandemic has created an alarming situation across the globe. Varieties of diagnostic protocols are being developed for the diagnosis of COVID-19. Many of these diagnostic protocols however, have limitations such as for example unacceptable no of false-positive and false-negative cases, particularly during the early stages of infection. At present, the real-time (quantitative) reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) is considered the gold standard for COVID-19 diagnosis. However, RT-PCR based tests are complex, expensive, time consuming and involve pre-processing of samples. A swift, sensitive, inexpensive protocol for mass screening is urgently needed to contain this pandemic. There is urgent need to harness new powerful technologies for accurate detection not only of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) but also combating the emergence of pandemics of new viruses as well. To overcome the current challenges, the authors propose a diagnostic protocol based on surface-enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS) coupled with microfluidic devices containing integrated microchannels functionalized either with vertically aligned Au/Ag coated carbon nanotubes or with disposable electrospun micro/nano-filter membranes. These devices have the potential to successfully trap viruses from diverse biological fluids/secretions including saliva, nasopharyngeal, tear etc. These can thus enrich the viral titre and enable accurate identification of the viruses from their respective Raman signatures. If the device is successfully developed and proven to detect target viruses, it would facilitate rapid screening of symptomatic as well as asymptomatic individuals of COVID-19. This would be a valuable diagnostic tool not only for mass screening of current COVID -19 pandemic but also in viral pandemic outbreaks of future.

Fabrication and Applications of Microfluidic Devices: A Review

“…Microfluidic devices might also hold the answer for improving Coronavirus Disease 19 (COVID-19) testing. Amit Jadhav et al [ 91 ] proposed a diagnosis protocol based on surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy coupled with microchips presenting integrated microchannels functionalized with vertically aligned Au/Ag-coated nanotubes or with disposable electrospun micro/nano-filter membranes. Such constructions can successfully trap viruses from various biological fluids.…”

Ultra-fast and onsite interrogation of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in waters via surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS)

“…From the results of duplicated measurements for each sample, the consistency and repeatability of this SERS assay is 0.853 (Kendall coordination coefficient, p<0.01) and 4.5% (relative standard deviation, RSD) based on 1182/1189 ratio and 0.892 (Kendall coordination coefficient, p<0.01) and 4.2% (RSD) based on LD1 scores, respectively. Although the concept of using Raman spectroscopy to detect SARS-CoV-2 viruses has been raised by many researchers ( Lukose et al, 2021 ), these studies mainly focus on the detection sensitivity or substrate fabrication with artificial samples and there is no report on the detection of real environmental samples or accuracy ( Jadhav et al, 2021 ; Peng et al, 2021 ). Our findings proved the feasibility of ACE2@SN-SERS assay to on-site interrogate SARS-CoV-2 in real water samples, and both indicators have satisfactory performance.…”

Detection of COVID-19 Virus on Surfaces Using Photonics: Challenges and Perspectives

“…A diagnostic of COVID-19 was developed based on surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) combined with microfluidic systems that involve connected microchannels conjugated with Au/Ag-coated carbon nanotubes. The tool is used to detect viruses from various biological fluids, such as saliva, nasopharyngeal secretions, and tears [ 66 ]. Research demonstrated that the SERS technique could detect COVID-19 in polluted water at the single virus level.…”