Comput Struct Biotechnol J. 2021 Jun 14. doi: 10.1016 / j.csbj.2021.06.016. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Currently commercially available SARS-CoV-2 diagnostic approaches, including the molecular assay of nucleic acids using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), have many limitations and drawbacks. SARS-CoV-2 diagnostic strategies have been reported to have a high false negative rate and low sensitivity due to low viral antibodies or low antigenic load in samples, which is why even the PCR test is recommended to repeat to overcome this problem. So, in anticipation of the current wave of COVID-19 and the waves to come, we should have an accurate and rapid diagnostic tool to control this pandemic. In this study, we developed a novel pre-analytical strategy to be used for the enrichment of SARS-CoV-2 samples in order to avoid diagnostic errors. This method is based on trapping by immuno-affinity of the viral target followed by thermal precipitation and in situ enrichment. We designed, synthesized and characterized a heat-sensitive poly polymer (N-isopropylacrylamide-co-2-hydroxyisopropylacrylamide-co-alkyne isopropylacrylamide) followed by decoration with a SARS-CoV-2 antibody. Different research has approved the successful synthesis of the polymeric antibody conjugate. This conjugate has been shown to enrich SARS-CoV-2 recombinant core protein samples up to approximately 6-fold. This developed system has successfully avoided diagnostic errors in low viral load samples using the lateral flow immunoassay. The strength of this work is that, to our knowledge, this report may be the first to functionalize the SARS-CoV-2 antibody to a thermoreactive polymer to increase its screening sensitivity during the current pandemic.

PMID:34150187 | PMC:PMC8200327 | DO I:10.1016 / j.csbj.2021.06.016