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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Jake McClementsORCiD, Dr Pankaj Singla, Dr Brendan PayneORCiD, Dr Shayan SeyedinORCiD, Professor Marloes PeetersORCiD
This is the authors' accepted manuscript of an article that has been published in its final definitive form by American Chemical Society, 2022.
For re-use rights please refer to the publisher's terms and conditions.
Rapid antigen tests are currently used for population screening of COVID-19. However, they lack sensitivity and utilize antibodies as receptors, which can only function in narrow temperature and pH ranges. Consequently, molecularly imprinted polymer nanoparticles (nanoMIPs) are synthetized with a fast (2 h) and scalable process using merely a tiny SARS-CoV-2 fragment (∼10 amino acids). The nanoMIPs rival the affinity of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies under standard testing conditions and surpass them at elevated temperatures or in acidic media. Therefore, nanoMIP sensors possess clear advantages over antibody-based assays as they can function in various challenging media. A thermal assay is developed with nanoMIPs electrografted onto screen-printed electrodes to accurately quantify SARS-CoV-2 antigens. Heat transfer-based measurements demonstrate superior detection limits compared to commercial rapid antigen tests and most antigen tests from the literature for both the alpha (∼9.9 fg mL–1) and delta (∼6.1 fg mL–1) variants of the spike protein. A prototype assay is developed, which can rapidly (∼15 min) validate clinical patient samples with excellent sensitivity and specificity. The straightforward epitope imprinting method and high robustness of nanoMIPs produce a SARS-CoV-2 sensor with significant commercial potential for population screening, in addition to the possibility of measurements in diagnostically challenging environments.
Author(s): McClements J, Bar L, Singla P, Canfarotta F, Thomson A, Czulak J, Johnson R, Crapnell R, Banks C, Payne B, Seyedin S, Losada-Perez P, Peeters M
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: ACS Sensors
Year: 2022
Volume: 7
Issue: 4
Pages: 1122-1131
Print publication date: 22/04/2022
Online publication date: 13/04/2022
Acceptance date: 23/03/2022
Date deposited: 25/04/2022
ISSN (electronic): 2379-3694
Publisher: American Chemical Society
URL: https://doi.org/10.1021/acssensors.2c00100
DOI: 10.1021/acssensors.2c00100
ePrints DOI: 10.57711/3ehn-kw31
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