“Three on Three”

Read our latest work on SARS-CoV-2 detection in saliva, where we developed a trimeric aptamer, named TMSA52, for the recognition of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein. The aptamer not only possesses superb binding affinity but is also capable of binding several SARS-CoV-2 spike protein variants with picomolar affinity, as well as pseudotyped lentiviruses expressing SARS-CoV-2 spike protein variants with femtomolar affinity. Using Pd-Ir nanocubes as nanozymes in an enzyme-linked aptamer binding assay (ELABA), TMSA52 was capable of sensitively detecting diverse pseudotyped lentiviruses in pooled human saliva.  The ELABA was also used to test 50 SARS-CoV-2 positive and 60 negative patient saliva samples, providing sensitivity and specificity values of 84.0% and 98.3%, respectively, thus highlighting the potential of TMSA52 for the development of future rapid tests.

Jiuxing Li, Zijie Zhang, Jimmy Gu, Ryan Amini, Alexandria Mansfield, Jianrun Xia, Dawn White, Hannah D. Stacey, Jann C. Ang, Gurpreet Panesar, Alfredo Capretta, Carlos D. M. Filipe, Karen Mossman, Bruno J. Salena, Jonathan Gubbay, Cynthia Balion, Leyla Soleymani, Matthew S. Miller, Deborah Yamamura, John D. Brennan*, and Yingfu Li*. Three on three: Universal and high-affinity molecular recognition of the symmetric homotrimeric spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 with a symmetric homotrimeric aptamer. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2022, 144, 23465–23473. (DOI: 10.1021/jacs.2c09870, IF: 16.38)