Smartphone-Based High-Throughput Fiber-Integrated Immunosensing System for Point-of-Care Testing of the SARS-CoV-2 Nucleocapsid Protein

To control the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, there is an urgent need for simple, rapid, and reliable detection methods to identify severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection, especially in community hospitals or clinical centers. The SARSCoV-2 nucleocapsid protein (NP) is an important index for diagnosis of COVID19. Here, we proposed a smartphone-based high-throughput fiber-integrated immunosensing system (HFIS) for detecting the SARS-CoV-2 NP in serum samples within 45 min. For the testing of NP standards, the linear detection range was 7.8-1000 pg/mL, the limit of detection was 7.5 pg/mL, and the cut-off value was 8.923 pg/mL. Twenty-five serum samples from clinically diagnosed COVID19 patients and 100 negative control samples from healthy blood donors were tested for SARS-CoV-2 NP by HFIS, and the obtained results were compared with those of ELISA and Simple Western analysis. The results showed that the HFIS sensitivity and specificity were 72% [95% confidence interval (CI): 52.42-85.72%] and 100% (95% CI: 96.11-100%), respectively, which significantly correlated with those from the commercial ELISA kit and Simple Western analysis. This portable high-throughput HFIS assay could be an alternative test for detecting SARS-CoV-2 NP in blood samples on site.

Automated summary

A smartphone-based high-throughput fiber-integrated immunosensing system (HFIS) was proposed for detecting SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid protein (NP) in serum samples within 45 minutes. The system showed high sensitivity and specificity and could be an alternative method for on-site detection of SARS-CoV-2 NP in blood samples.