Rapid Screening of COVID-19 Directly from Clinical Nasopharyngeal Swabs Using the MasSpec Pen

Author(s):Show less -

Garza, Kyana Y. ^[1] ; Silva, Alex Ap Rosini ^[2] ; Rosa, Jonas R. ^[2] ; Keating, Michael F. ^[1] ; Povilaitis, Sydney C. ^[1] ; Spradlin, Meredith ^[1] ; Sanches, Pedro H. Godoy ^[2] ; Moura, Alexandre Varao ^[2] ; Gutierrez, Junier Marrero ^[2] ; Lin, John Q. ^[1] ; Zhang, Jialing ^[1] ; DeHoog, Rachel J. ^[1] ; Bensussan, Alena ^[1] ; Badal, Sunil ^[1] ; de Oliveira, Danilo Cardoso ^[2] ; Dias Garcia, Pedro Henrique ^[2] ; de Oliveira Negrini, Lisamara Dias ^[3] ; Ap Antonio, Marcia ^{[4, 5]} ; Canevari, Thiago C. ^[6] ; Eberlin, Marcos N. ^[6] ; Tibshirani, Robert ^[7] ; Eberlin, Livia S. ^[1] ; Porcari, Andreia M. ^[2]

Affiliation

^[1] Univ Texas Austin, Dept Chem, Austin, TX 78712 - USA

^[2] Sao Francisco Univ, MS4Life Lab Mass Spectrometry, Hlth Sci Postgrad Program, BR-12916900 Braganca Paulista, SP - Brazil

^[3] Municipal Dept Hlth, BR-12902230 Braganca Paulista, SP - Brazil

^[4] Univ Sio Francisco, Braganca Paulista, SP - Brazil

^[5] UNIFAG, Integrated Unit Pharmacol & Gastroenterol, BR-12916900 Braganca Paulista, SP - Brazil

^[6] Univ Prebiteriana Mackenzie, Sch Mat Engn & Nanotechnol, MackMass Lab, BR-01302907 Sao Paulo, SP - Brazil

^[7] Stanford Univ, Dept Biomed Data Sci, Stanford, CA 94305 - USA

• Document type: Journal article
• Source: Analytical Chemistry; v. 93, n. 37, p. 12582-12593, SEP 21 2021.
• Web of Science Citations: 0

Abstract

The outbreak of COVID-19 has created an unprecedent global crisis. While the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is the gold standard method for detecting active SARS-CoV-2 infection, alternative high-throughput diagnostic tests are of a significant value to meet universal testing demands. Here, we describe a new design of the MasSpec Pen technology integrated to electrospray ionization (ESI) for direct analysis of clinical swabs and investigate its use for COVID-19 screening. The redesigned MasSpec Pen system incorporates a disposable sampling device refined for uniform and efficient analysis of swab tips via liquid extraction directly coupled to an ESI source. Using this system, we analyzed nasopharyngeal swabs from 244 individuals including symptomatic COVID-19 positive, symptomatic negative, and asymptomatic negative individuals, enabling rapid detection of rich lipid profiles. Two statistical classifiers were generated based on the lipid information acquired. Classifier 1 was built to distinguish symptomatic PCR-positive from asymptomatic PCR-negative individuals, yielding a cross-validation accuracy of 83.5%, sensitivity of 76.6%, and specificity of 86.6%, and validation set accuracy of 89.6%, sensitivity of 100%, and specificity of 85.3%. Classifier 2 was built to distinguish symptomatic PCR-positive patients from negative individuals including symptomatic PCR-negative patients with moderate to severe symptoms and asymptomatic individuals, yielding a cross-validation accuracy of 78.4%, specificity of 77.21%, and sensitivity of 81.8%. Collectively, this study suggests that the lipid profiles detected directly from nasopharyngeal swabs using MasSpec Pen-ESI mass spectrometry (MS) allow fast (under a minute) screening of the COVID-19 disease using minimal operating steps and no specialized reagents, thus representing a promising alternative high-throughput method for screening of COVID-19. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 19/04314-6 - Imaging and mass spectrometry-based metabolomics applied to the study of drug resistance in neoadjuvant therapy for breast cancer: the search for a predictive test
• Grantee: Andréia de Melo Porcari
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants