Real-time, selective, and low-cost detection of trace level SARS-CoV-2 spike-protein for cold-chain food quarantine

NPJ Sci Food. 2021 Jun 1;5(1):12. doi: 10.1038/s41538-021-00094-3.

Abstract

Due to the friendly temperature for virus survival, SARS-CoV-2 is frequently found in cold-chain foods, posing a serious threat to public health. Utilizing an interdigitated microelectrode chip modified with an antibody probe and integrating dielectrophoresis enrichment with interfacial capacitance sensing, a strategy is presented for the detection of trace level spike-protein from SARS-CoV-2. It achieves a limit of detection as low as 2.29 × 10-6 ng/mL in 20 s, with a wide linear range of 10-5-10-1 ng/mL and a selectivity of 234:1. The cost for a single test can be controlled to ~1 dollar. This strategy provides a competitive solution for real-time, sensitive, selective, and large-scale application in cold-chain food quarantine.