Development of COVID-19 Detection Using SPR Sensors: A Preliminary Result

Abstract

Coronavirus disease or COVID-19 is a virus from the Coronaviridae family that has caused pandemics throughout the world since the end of 2019. The virus spreads ten times faster through human interaction than SARS-CoV. The RNA sequence of COVID-19 has a 79.5% similarity with SARS-CoV. Fast and specific detection of COVID-19 is needed so that patient detection can be done quickly and accurately. One method that can be developed as a COVID-19 biosensor is aptamers-based biosensors. The aptamer is an artificial oligo nucleic acid that can specifically bind to target molecules. The aptamer is easily and chemically modifiable for increasing stability and reducing toxicity. It shows a comparable affinity for the target virus and better thermal stability than monoclonal antibodies. This advantage makes aptamer a promising candidate in diagnostic and detection applications. The goal of this research is to use an RNA aptamer as the specific recognition element in a portable surface plasmon resonance (SPR) biosensor for the detection of COVID-19 in humans. An aptamer RNA 1 COVID-19 was designed using the COVID-19 sequence from GISAID using the in silico method. End of 3’ aptamer RNA 1 was modified with dithiol. And Then, the aptamer was immobilized on the gold nanoparticle sensor surface via Cysteine-dithiol binding. The RNA solution, that had been extracted from swab samples, was diluted ten times before being used as a sample. The immobilized aptamer RNA 1 captured COVID-19 in RNA solution, causing an increase in refraction index (r.u). An aptamer RNA 1 was found to bind RNA virus of COVID-19 where the positive sample of COVID-19 has refraction index (r.u) between 3 r.u – 10 r.u for various Ct values.