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An accurate, high-speed, portable bifunctional electrical detector for COVID-19

一种针对新型冠状病毒肺炎的准确、快速、便携式双功能电检测仪

Science China Materials volume 64, pages 739–747 (2021)Cite this article

Abstract

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by SARS-CoV-2, has rapidly spread and caused a severe global pandemic. Because no specific drugs are available for COVID-19 and few vaccines are available for SARS-CoV-2, accurate and rapid diagnosis of COVID-19 has been the most crucial measure to control this pandemic. Here, we developed a portable bifunctional electrical detector based on graphene fieldeffect transistors for SARS-CoV-2 through either nucleic acid hybridization or antigen-antibody protein interaction, with ultra-low limits of detection of ~0.1 and ~1 fg mL−1 in phosphate buffer saline, respectively. We validated our method by assessment of RNA extracts from the oropharyngeal swabs of ten COVID-19 patients and eight healthy subjects, and the IgM/IgG antibodies from serum specimens of six COVID-19 patients and three healthy subjects. Here we show that the diagnostic results are in excellent agreement with the findings of polymerase chain reaction-based optical methods; they also exhibit rapid detection speed (~10 min for nucleic acid detection and ~5 min for immunoassay). Therefore, our assay provides an efficient, accurate tool for high-throughput point-of-care testing.

摘要

新型冠状病毒肺炎(COVID-19)正在多个国家快速传播, 已 经导致了严重的全球大流行. 由于目前没有针对此类病人的特效 药和针对此病毒的疫苗, 准确、快速地进行新冠病人检测成为了 控制大流行最有效的措施. 本文中我们开发了一种基于石墨烯场 效应晶体管的便携式双功能电检测仪, 其通过核酸互补杂交或者 抗原-抗体特异性结合作用, 能分别进行病毒核酸序列检测和抗体 检测, 检测限分别低至0.1和1 fg mL−1. 我们通过临床样品检测进一 步评估了此方法: 从10个新冠病人和8个正常人咽拭子中提取RNA 直接用于核酸检测; 从6个新冠病人和3个正常人血清中提取抗体 用于抗体检测. 临床样品检测结果和基于聚合酶链反应的光学方 法结果完全吻合, 同时此方法拥有超快的检测速度(核酸检测需 10 min, 抗体检测需5 min). 因此, 我们的实验提供了一种有效、准 确、高通量的新冠现场即时检测工具.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (2017YFA0204901), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21727806, 21772003 and 21933001), the Tencent Foundation through the XPLORER PRIZE, Guangdong Major Project of Basic and Applied Basic Research (2019B030302007), and Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences (BNLMS201901).

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally to this work.

Affiliations

  1. Institute of Polymer Optoelectronic Materials and Devices, State Key Laboratory of Luminescent Materials and Devices, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510640, China

    Guojun Ke & Fei Huang

  2. Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, State Key Laboratory for Structural Chemistry of Unstable and Stable Species, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China

    Guojun Ke, Dingkai Su, Yu Li & Xuefeng Guo

  3. Department of Energy and Resources Engineering, College of Engineering, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China

    Yu Zhao, Honggang Wang & Fanyang Mo

  4. Qingdao Shuojing Biological Technology Co., Ltd., Qingdao, 266112, China

    Wanjian Liu & Zhiting Yang

  5. Department of Pathology, Beijing Ditan Hospital Capital Medical University, Beijing, 100015, China

    Man Li & Peng Wang

  6. Institute of Digital Economy Industry, Hangzhou, 310015, China

    Fang Xiao

  7. Beijing Sylincom Technology Co., Ltd., Beijing, 100081, China

    Yao Yuan

Authors
  1. Guojun Ke
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  2. Dingkai Su
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  3. Yu Li
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  4. Yu Zhao
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  11. Fei Huang
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  13. Peng Wang
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  14. Xuefeng Guo
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Contributions

Guo X, Mo F, Wang P and Huang F conceived and designed the experiments; Ke G, Su D and Li Y fabricated the devices and performed the device measurements; Zhao Y, Wang H, Xiao F and Yuan Y designed and built the measurement machines; LiuWand Yang Z provided the antigen protein; Li M and Wang P provided the clinical samples; Guo X, Mo F, Wang P, Ke G and Su D analyzed the data and wrote the paper. All authors discussed the results and commented on the manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Fei Huang, Fanyang Mo, Peng Wang or Xuefeng Guo.

Additional information

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Supplementary information

Experimental details and supporting data are available in the online version of this paper.

Guojun Ke received his BS degree in 2012 and PhD degree in 2017 from the School of Chemistry, Sun Yat-Sen University, respectively. From 2013 to 2016, he was a visiting student at the University of Basel. He is currently working as a postdoctoral fellow in South China University of Technology. His current research focuses on device physics of single-molecule junctions.

Dingkai Su received his BS degree in 2017 from the College of Nano Science and Technology, Soochow University. He is currently a PhD candidate at the College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University, under the guidance of Prof. Xuefeng Guo. His research interest focuses on single-molecule devices and dynamics.

Xuefeng Guo received his PhD degree in 2004 from the Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences. From 2004 to 2007, he was a postdoctoral research scientist at the Columbia University Nanocenter. He joined the faculty as a professor under the “Peking 100-Talent” Program at Peking University in 2008. His research focuses on functional nanometer/molecular devices.

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Ke, G., Su, D., Li, Y. et al. An accurate, high-speed, portable bifunctional electrical detector for COVID-19. Sci. China Mater. 64, 739–747 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40843-020-1577-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40843-020-1577-y

Keywords

  • COVID-19
  • biosensor
  • nucleic acid detection
  • immunoassay
  • point-of-care testing