Unamplified RNA Sensor for On‐Site Screening of Zika Virus Disease in a Limited Resource Setting

Abstract

Recent outbreaks of Zika virus have been declared a public health emergency of international concern. The diagnosis of Zika infection is based on a person's recent travel history, symptoms, and laboratory test results. However, the diagnosis of Zika infection may be delayed because symptoms are often mild and nondescript, and confirmatory laboratory tests are relatively time‐consuming and expensive. Given the lack of an effective vaccine against Zika virus, and a relatively short period of viremia, developing a rapid and sensitive means of detecting the Zika virus in serum is a public health priority. This work presents a novel RNA sensor, based on a sequence‐specific probe and AC electrokinetics‐enhanced capacitive sensing technology to directly capture and detect Zika virus RNA. This method allows detection and quantification of Zika virus RNA in only 30 seconds, with a low limit of detection (LOD) reaching 158.1 copies/μL. The sensor is also tested for its specificity, showing no false‐positive signals from other viruses. In addition, the biosensor is portable, inexpensive, and simple to use, without the need of signal amplification, which makes it ideal for field applications.

Capacitive DNA sensor for rapid and sensitive detection of whole genome human herpesvirus‐1 dsDNA in serum

“…Our prior work has shown that if the probe for electrodes functionalization or target DNA for detection are in different buffers, the sensor will have different performances . In this work, to optimize the probe immobilization and target detection, multiple tests with probe and target in different buffers are conducted and their results are summarized in Fig.…”

A sensitive electrochemical immunosensor for label-free detection of Zika-virus protein

“…These methods are colorimetric and showed significant qualitative sensing outcomes. RNA based capacitive sensing methodologies 8 and nanoparticles-assisted plamonic platform have also been explored for the quantitative estimation of ZIKV 9 – 11 . However, these methods are multi-component based systems and investigators of above discussed research suggested lot of optimizations followed by validations prior promote these methods for clinical application.…”

Real-time Sensing of Trace Biomarkers from Viruses with a Microfluidic Immunosensor: A Case Study of SARS-CoV-2 Detection in Cold-chain Food

“…[15] Based on the good specificity and versatile sensing mechanisms, bio-probe based sensors for virus detection are becoming more practicable in recent years as promising approaches. [19][20][21] Also due to the high specificity, reproducibility, and stability, antibody based detections of causative agent are continually adopted in food safety detection. [22,23] Limited to the low concentration, direct detection of virus without complicated amplification is always hard to achieve.…”