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. 2020 Dec 15:170:112656.
doi: 10.1016/j.bios.2020.112656. Epub 2020 Sep 26.

An integrated system of air sampling and simultaneous enrichment for rapid biosensing of airborne coronavirus and influenza virus

Hyeong Rae Kim  1 , Sanggwon An  2 , Jungho Hwang  3
Affiliations

An integrated system of air sampling and simultaneous enrichment for rapid biosensing of airborne coronavirus and influenza virus

Hyeong Rae Kim et al. Biosens Bioelectron. .

Abstract

Point-of-care risk assessment (PCRA) for airborne viruses requires a system that can enrich low-concentration airborne viruses dispersed in field environments into a small volume of liquid. In this study, airborne virus particles were collected to a degree above the limit of detection (LOD) for a real-time quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). This study employed an electrostatic air sampler to capture aerosolized test viruses (human coronavirus 229E (HCoV-229E), influenza A virus subtype H1N1 (A/H1N1), and influenza A virus subtype H3N2 (A/H3N2)) in a continuously flowing liquid (aerosol-to-hydrosol (ATH) enrichment) and a concanavalin A (ConA)-coated magnetic particles (CMPs)-installed fluidic channel for simultaneous hydrosol-to-hydrosol (HTH) enrichment. The air sampler's ATH enrichment capacity (EC) was evaluated using the aerosol counting method. In contrast, the HTH EC for the ATH-collected sample was evaluated using transmission-electron-microscopy (TEM)-based image analysis and real-time qRT-PCR assay. For example, the ATH EC for HCoV-229E was up to 67,000, resulting in a viral concentration of 0.08 PFU/mL (in a liquid sample) for a viral epidemic scenario of 1.2 PFU/m3 (in air). The real-time qRT-PCR assay result for this liquid sample was "non-detectable" however, subsequent HTH enrichment for 10 min caused the "non-detectable" sample to become "detectable" (cycle threshold (CT) value of 33.8 ± 0.06).

Keywords: Aerosol-to-hydrosol sampling; Airborne virus; Airborne virus monitoring; Coronavirus; Electrostatic air sampler; Virus enrichment.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
(a) Overall experimental setup for airborne virus sampling and enrichment tests. (b) 3D schematic and (c) photograph of an integrated system for sampling and simultaneous enrichment for rapid PCRA.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
(a) Size distributions of airborne viruses (HCoV-229E, A/H1N1, and A/H3N2) as measured by SMPS, (b) Virus (HCoV-229E) collection efficiency according to varying air flow rates and applied voltages, (c) ATH EC according to varying air flow rates and applied voltages for HCoV-229E, (d) virus (A/H1N1, and A/H3N2) collection efficiency according to varying applied voltages (10 L/min of air flow rate).
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
(a) Real-time qRT-PCR amplification curves with various HTH enrichment times (0, 1, 5, 10 min) for 6 PFU/mL of HCoV-229E. (b) Corresponding CT values. (c) Total enrichment capacities for HCoV-229E with various HTH enrichment times. Real-time qRT-PCR amplification curves; before and after HTH enrichment for various concentrations of (d) HCoV-229E, (e) A/H1N1, and (f) A/H3N2 samples. The dotted curves, representing ATH-collected viruses, became full curves after HTH enrichment (e.g., red dotted curves became full red curves after HTH enrichment). (g) Total enrichment capacities for HCoV-229E, A/H1N1, and A/H3N2 with different concentrations of aerosolized viruses. (h) TEM images of HCoV-229E, A/H1N1, and A/H3N2 samples with an ATH sampling method (green box) and an HTH enrichment method after ATH sampling (red box).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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