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Sci Adv
. 2022 Sep 30;8(39):eabn9665.
doi: 10.1126/sciadv.abn9665. Epub 2022 Sep 28.
Microfluidic affinity selection of active SARS-CoV-2 virus particles
Sachindra S T Gamage 1 2 , Thilanga N Pahattuge 1 2 , Harshani Wijerathne 1 2 , Katie Childers 2 3 , Swarnagowri Vaidyanathan 2 3 , Uditha S Athapattu 1 2 , Lulu Zhang 2 3 , Zheng Zhao 1 2 , Mateusz L Hupert 4 , Rolf M Muller 4 , Judy Muller-Cohn 4 , Janet Dickerson 4 , Dylan Dufek 4 , Brian V Geisbrecht 5 , Harsh Pathak 6 , Ziyan Pessetto 7 , Gregory N Gan 8 9 , Junseo Choi 2 10 , Sunggook Park 2 10 , Andrew K Godwin 2 6 9 , Malgorzata A Witek 1 2 , Steven A Soper 1 2 3 9 11
Affiliations
- PMID: 36170362
- DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abn9665
Abstract
We report a microfluidic assay to select active severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) viral particles (VPs), which were defined as intact particles with an accessible angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 receptor binding domain (RBD) on the spike (S) protein, from clinical samples. Affinity selection of SARS-CoV-2 particles was carried out using injection molded microfluidic chips, which allow for high-scale production to accommodate large-scale screening. The microfluidic contained a surface-bound aptamer directed against the virus's S protein RBD to affinity select SARS-CoV-2 VPs. Following selection (~94% recovery), the VPs were released from the chip's surface using a blue light light-emitting diode (89% efficiency). Selected SARS-CoV-2 VP enumeration was carried out using reverse transcription quantitative polymerase chain reaction. The VP selection assay successfully identified healthy donors (clinical specificity = 100%) and 19 of 20 patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) (95% sensitivity). In 15 patients with COVID-19, the presence of active SARS-CoV-2 VPs was found. The chip can be reprogrammed for any VP or exosomes by simply changing the affinity agent.