Ultra-sensitive Electrochemiluminescent Biosensor for the Detection of Coronavirus Variants 

Jarid du Plooy1 , Keagan Pokpas2, Samantha Douman1.

1 Department of Chemistry, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, Cape Town 7700

2 Department of Chemistry, University of the Western Cape, Bellville, 7536

Dpljar006@myuct.ac.za

 

Abstract

The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) aka COVID-19 has plagued the world in recent years amassing to just under 7 million deaths worldwide. This highly infectious virus can spread freely among individuals especially those in developing countries where overcrowding and lack in healthcare are of particular concern. Current commercially available COVID-19 diagnostics focus on costly and time-consuming molecular assays thus limiting the effectiveness for sensitive and early diagnosis 1. Herein, this work proposes the development of a novel electrochemiluminescent (ECL) biosensor that is selective and sensitive towards early detection of coronavirus antibodies with emphasis on coronavirus variants 2,3. Moreover, luminescent materials will be applied as ECL luminophores to act as a signal readout in the biosensor fabrication specifically towards coronavirus variant detection 4. In addition, the fabricated ECL biosensor will be optimized and studies such as binding affinity, stability, selectivity, and sensitivity shall be conducted. The proposed ECL biosensor provides a novel approach to real-time coronavirus and related variants monitoring and presents a unique opportunity for gold-standard sensing of other viruses and diseases in the future.