Ultrasensitive electrochemical biosensors based on zinc sulfide/graphene hybrid for rapid detection of SARS-CoV-2

Shatila Sarwar; Mao-Chia Lin; Carolina Amezaga; Zhen Wei; Etinosa Iyayi; Haseena Polk; Ruigang Wang; Honghe Wang; Xinyu Zhang

doi:10.1007/s42114-023-00630-7

Ultrasensitive electrochemical biosensors based on zinc sulfide/graphene hybrid for rapid detection of SARS-CoV-2

Adv Compos Hybrid Mater. 2023;6(1):49. doi: 10.1007/s42114-023-00630-7. Epub 2023 Jan 26.

Authors

Shatila Sarwar¹, Mao-Chia Lin¹, Carolina Amezaga², Zhen Wei³, Etinosa Iyayi⁴, Haseena Polk⁴, Ruigang Wang³, Honghe Wang⁴, Xinyu Zhang¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemical Engineering, Auburn University, Auburn, AL 36849 USA.
² Department of Material Engineering, Auburn University, Auburn, AL 36849 USA.
³ Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487 USA.
⁴ Department of Biology and Center for Cancer Research, Tuskegee University, Tuskegee, AL 36088 USA.

Abstract

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a highly contagious and fatal disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). In general, the diagnostic tests for COVID-19 are based on the detection of nucleic acid, antibodies, and protein. Among different analytes, the gold standard of the COVID-19 test is the viral nucleic acid detection performed by the quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) method. However, the gold standard test is time-consuming and requires expensive instrumentation, as well as trained personnel. Herein, we report an ultrasensitive electrochemical biosensor based on zinc sulfide/graphene (ZnS/graphene) nanocomposite for rapid and direct nucleic acid detection of SARS-CoV-2. We demonstrated a simple one-step route for manufacturing ZnS/graphene by employing an ultrafast (90 s) microwave-based non-equilibrium heating approach. The biosensor assay involves the hybridization of target DNA or RNA samples with probes that are immersed into a redox active electrolyte, which are detectable by electrochemical measurements. In this study, we have performed the tests for synthetic DNA samples and, SARS-CoV-2 standard samples. Experimental results revealed that the proposed biosensor could detect low concentrations of all different SARS-CoV-2 samples, using such as S, ORF 1a, and ORF 1b gene sequences as targets. This microwave-synthesized ZnS/graphene-based biosensor could be reliably used as an on-site, real-time, and rapid diagnostic test for COVID-19.

Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s42114-023-00630-7.

Keywords: COVID-19; DNA biosensor; Graphene; Microwave; Nanocomposite; Zinc sulfide.

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