Back

Rapid detection of SARS-CoV2 by Ambient Mass Spectrometry Techniques

Ford, L. L.; Simon, D.; Balog, J.; Jiwa, N.; Higginson, J.; Jones, E.; Manoli, E.; Mason, S.; Wu, V.; Stavrakaki, S.; McKenzie, J.; McGill, D.; Koguna, H.; Kinross, J.; Takats, Z.

2020-10-12 infectious diseases
10.1101/2020.10.07.20207647 medRxiv
Show abstract

Ambient Ionisation Mass Spectrometry techniques: Desorption Electrospray Ionisation (DESI) and Laser Desorption - Rapid Evaporative Ionisation Mass Spectrometry (LD-REIMS) were used to detect the SARS-CoV-2 in dry nasal swabs. 45 patients were studied from samples collected between April - June 2020 in a clinical feasibility study. Diagnostic accuracy was calculated as 86.7% and 84% for DESI and LD-REIMS respectively. Results can be acquired in seconds providing robust and quick analysis of COVID-19 status which could be carried out without the need for a centralised laboratory. This technology has the potential to provide an alternative to population testing and enable the track and trace objectives set by governments and curtail the effects of a second surge in COVID-19 positive cases. In contrast to current PCR testing, using this technique there is no requirement of specific reagents which can cause devastating delays upon breakdowns of supply chains, thus providing a promising alternative testing method.

Matching journals

The top 5 journals account for 50% of the predicted probability mass.

50% of probability mass above

"Similar papers" are the closest papers from that journal in the model's embedding space. They show what the match is built on, but the ranking comes mostly from a classifier over the whole training set, not from these examples alone.