Probing the mutation independent interaction of DNA probes with SARS-CoV-2 variants through a combination of surface-enhanced Raman scattering and machine learning.
Biosens Bioelectron
; 208: 114200, 2022 Jul 15.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1814165
ABSTRACT
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) evolution has been characterized by the emergence of sets of mutations impacting the virus characteristics, such as transmissibility and antigenicity, presumably in response to the changing immune profile of the human population. The presence of mutations in the SARS-CoV-2 virus can potentially impact therapeutic and diagnostic test performances. We design and develop here a unique set of DNA probes i.e., antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs) which can interact with genetic sequences of the virus irrespective of its ongoing mutations. The probes, developed herein, target a specific segment of the nucleocapsid phosphoprotein (N) gene of SARS-CoV-2 with high binding efficiency which do not mutate among the known variants. Further probing into the interaction profile of the ASOs reveals that the ASO-RNA hybridization remains unaltered even for a hypothetical single point mutation at the target RNA site and diminished only in case of the hypothetical double or triple point mutations. The mechanism of interaction among the ASOs and SARS-CoV-2 RNA is then explored with a combination of surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) and machine learning techniques. It has been observed that the technique, described herein, could efficiently discriminate between clinically positive and negative samples with â¼100% sensitivity and â¼90% specificity up to 63 copies/mL of SARS-CoV-2 RNA concentration. Thus, this study establishes N gene targeted ASOs as the fundamental machinery to efficiently detect all the current SARS-CoV-2 variants regardless of their mutations.
Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Biosensing Techniques
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Diagnostic study
/
Prognostic study
Topics:
Variants
Limits:
Humans
Language:
English
Journal:
Biosens Bioelectron
Journal subject:
Biotechnology
Year:
2022
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
J.bios.2022.114200
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