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Health professionals are increasingly ready for a future in which COVID-19 variations develop, surge, and fade similarly to seasonal flu as the BA.5 omicron variant spreads. The ability to immediately monitor the virus at a "population scale," a task that will need precise and extremely quick testing, will be crucial for keeping up with these changes.
Researchers from the School of Science at IUPUI are working to create a new biosensor that could meet the future COVID-19 testing requirements for speed and efficiency in order to help tackle this issue. The study was just published in the American Chemical Society Journal 'Applied Material Interfaces. Adrianna Masterson, a graduate student in Sardar's lab at the time of the study, and Rajesh Sardar, a professor of chemistry and chemical biology in the School of Science, are the project's leaders. "Everyone is chasing high-throughput testing; this type of high-speed analysis is essential to the future of the fight against COVID-19," Sardar said. "There are many advantages to our technology in particular: It's fast, efficient, accurate and unprecedentedly sensitive." According to Sardar, the COVID-19 test from his lab can presently examine samples from 96 people in less than three hours. The method works most effectively with 10 microliters of blood. In contrast, 10 millilitres of blood are typically drawn for a blood panel ordered by a primary-care doctor, which is 1,000 times greater. According to Sardar, the sensor also functions with different sample types including saliva. However, blood was used in the study since it is the most complex biological fluid and the best gauge of a sensor's accuracy. The Indiana Biobank, which contributed 216 blood samples, including 141 samples from COVID-19 patients and 75 samples from healthy controls, was where all test samples were collected. Blind examination by IUPUI researchers revealed that their biosensor had a 100% accuracy rate and a 90% specificity rate. In other words, the sensor only ever returned a false positive in 1 out of 10 samples and never a false negative. According to Sardar, the absence of false negatives is more crucial for public safety than the presence of false positives since someone who has a false negative could unintentionally infect others whereas a person who has a false positive is not a threat. Sardar added that the sensor's ability to measure the body's COVID-19 antibody concentration was proven to be quite accurate. This is so that it can recognise both the virus' spike protein and the immunoglobin G, or IgG, proteins that the body produces to fight off viruses. He added that it is important to be able to measure COVID-19 antibodies because many COVID-19 antibody tests that are currently authorised under the FDA's emergency use authorization do not provide precise antibody counts, even though this number represents the potency of an individual's immunity to infection. According to Sardar, it will be essential to accurately measure patients' immune levels in order to prevent COVID-19 in the future. This is really evident in the way things are right now, where varieties like omicron and, most recently, BA.5, are infecting people who have had all of their vaccinations and booster shots. Sardar's lab's biosensor relies on chemically manufactured gold triangular nanoprisms to produce its results because they offer a remarkably potent optical response to even minute levels of IgG. It also implies that the sensor is capable of detecting antibodies in the initial stages of infection. The research, which started in the early stages of the pandemic, builds on early, encouraging findings that were released in June 2021. Sardar's next goal is to improve the system even more, with the end goal of processing 384 samples in less than an hour -- or 5,000 samples a day, if utilised in a bigger testing facility. According to Sardar, who is also a researcher at the Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center, "this research is about preparing for the future." "The H1N1 influenza strain has been around for almost a century. I anticipate the coronavirus will be around for a very long period as well. In order to keep one step ahead of the virus, we must devise rapid, simple, and effective approaches to assess the risks of infection for a large number of people." (ANI)
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