Specific and Rapid SARS-CoV-2 Identification Based on LC-MS/MS Analysis

Abstract

This study describes the development of a novel assay for SARS-CoV-2 identification using LC-MS/MS analysis. A multi-step procedure for the rational down-selection of a set of markers has leaded to the discovery of six SARS-CoV-2 specific and sensitive markers, enabling the reliable identification of the virus. A rapid and simple assay was developed, successfully applied to clinical nasopharyngeal samples. The assay may potentially serve as a complementary approach for SARS-CoV-2 identification.

Mass spectrometry‐based proteomic platforms for better understanding of SARS‐CoV‐2 induced pathogenesis and potential diagnostic approaches

“…Currently, nucleic acid-based assays (e.g., PCR) are being used as a gold standard for diagnostic testing of SARS-CoV-2 and other viruses in clinical platforms. However, many recent studies showed MS-based assay has the potential to supplement the diagnostic testing of COVID-19 [5,14,[28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35]. Therefore, the development of rapid, sensitive, and multiplexed LC-MS/MS methods could be an attractive alternative in the COVID-19 testing field.…”

“…This finding is significant, as clinical samples are often dilute and have a low viral load. More recently, multiple MS-based targeted protocols have been developed and successfully applied to detect SARS-CoV-2 proteins including N, S, and M proteins from various clinical samples [28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35]. Despite these successful pilot studies, potential challenges and technical limitations of virus diagnostics using MS-based method from clinical samples F I G U R E 5 Potential bottom-up proteomics platforms for elucidation of the molecular mechanisms of SARS-CoV-2 infection.…”

“…immuno-proteomics [6][7][8][9][10][11][12]27] and targeted methods [5,[29][30][31][32][33][34][35] have been employed using COVID-19 patients' samples and/or infected cell lines in investigations of the molecular mechanism of viral infection, potential viral protein targets, and/or the viral proteins in human cell samples (Figure S1B, Table 1). Post-translational modifications on the viral proteins and those induced by SARS-CoV-2 infection in human cells have also been demonstrated [6,13,[16][17][18].…”