Detection of SARS-CoV-2 Proteins in Wastewater Samples by Mass Spectrometry

The recent COVID-19 pandemic overwhelmed the health system worldwide, and there was a need to track outbreaks and try to use this information as an early warning system. Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) enabled detection of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in wastewater treatment plant influents. Until now, the most used technique for this detection has been the quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR)-based quantification of SARS-CoV-2 RNA. This study proposes a mass spectrometry (MS)-based method that detected specific SARS-CoV-2 proteins in wastewater, 5 and 6 days ahead of the case data for two municipalities. We identified unique peptides of eight proteins related to the SARS-CoV-2 virus and COVID-19 infection. We detected the nonstructural protein (NSP) pp1ab (transcribed after host cell infection) most frequently in all of the samples. As a result, we suspect that in the active cases of COVID-19, the pp lab protein is present in high abundance in the urine and feces and that this protein could be used as an alternative biomarker. These data were collected before mass vaccination occurred in the population.

Automated summary

Wastewater-based epidemiology can detect the COVID-19 virus in wastewater. This study proposes a mass spectrometry-based method that can detect specific SARS-CoV-2 proteins several days earlier. The nonstructural protein pp1ab is found to be abundant in active COVID-19 cases.