Diagnostics (Oct 2021)

A Novel Rapid Test to Detect Anti-SARS-CoV-2 N Protein IgG Based on Shear Horizontal Surface Acoustic Wave (SH-SAW)

  • Yu-Chi Peng,
  • Chia-Hsuan Cheng,
  • Hiromi Yatsuda,
  • Szu-Heng Liu,
  • Shih-Jen Liu,
  • Takashi Kogai,
  • Chen-Yen Kuo,
  • Robert Y. L. Wang

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/diagnostics11101838
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 11, no. 10
p. 1838

Abstract

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Since the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic outbreak, many methods have been used to detect antigens or antibodies to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), including viral culture, nucleic acid test, and immunoassay. The shear-horizontal surface acoustic wave (SH-SAW) biosensor is a novel pathogen detection platform with the advantages of high sensitivity and short detection time. The objective of this study is to develop a SH-SAW biosensor to detect the anti-SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid antibody. The rabbit sera collected from rabbits on different days after SARS-CoV-2 N protein injection were evaluated by SH-SAW biosensor and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The results showed that the SH-SAW biosensor achieved a high correlation coefficient (R = 0.9997) with different concentrations (34.375–1100 ng/mL) of the “spike-in” anti-N protein antibodies. Compared to ELISA, the SH-SAW biosensor has better sensitivity and can detect anti-N protein IgG signals earlier than ELISA on day 6 (p < 0.05). Overall, in this study, we demonstrated that the SH-SAW biosensor is a promising platform for rapid in vitro diagnostic (IVD) testing, especially for antigen or antibody testing.

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