Abstract
Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) measures pathogens in wastewater to monitor infectious disease prevalence in communities. Due to the high dilution of pathogens in sewage, a concentration method is often required to achieve reliable biomarker signals. However, most of the current concentration methods rely on expensive equipment and labor-intensive processes, which limits the application of WBE in low-resource settings. Here, we compared the performance of four inexpensive and simple concentration methods to detect SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater samples: Solid Fraction, Porcine Gastric Mucin-conjugated Magnetic Beads, Calcium Flocculation- Citrate Dissolution (CFCD), and Nanotrap® Magnetic Beads (NMBs). The NMBs and CFCD methods yielded the highest concentration performance for SARS-CoV-2 (~16-fold concentration and ~ 41 % recovery) and require <45 min processing time. CFCD has a relatively low consumable cost (<$2 per four sample replicates). All methods can be performed with basic laboratory equipment and minimal electricity usage which enables further application of WBE in remote areas and low resource settings.
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2-2024
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.168782
Funding Information
The work was supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants 1U01DA053903-01 and P30 ES026529, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) contract BAA 75D301-20-R-68024, and National Science Foundation (NSF) grant 2154934. The following re- agent was deposited by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and obtained through BEI Resources, NIAID, NIH: Genomic RNA from SARS-Related Coronavirus 2, Isolate USA-CA4/2020, NR-52508, Quantitative PCR (qPCR) Extraction Control from Heat-Inactivated SARS-Related Coronavirus 2, Isolate USA-WA1/2020, NR-52350, and Genomic RNA from Influenza A Virus, A/Brisbane/10/2007 (HA, NA) x A/Puerto Rico/8/1934 (H3N2), Reassortant IVR-147, NR-10046. The Nanotrap magnetic beads and enhancement reagent was provided by Ceres Nanosciences, Inc. We thank Blazan Mijatovic and Savannah Tucker, field technicians at the University of Kentucky, for their assistance in the collection of wastewater samples.
Repository Citation
Banadaki, Mohammad Dehghan; Torabi, Soroosh; Rockward, Alexus Lori; Strike, William; Noble, Ann; Keck, James W.; and Berry, Scott M., "Simple SARS-CoV-2 concentration methods for wastewater surveillance in low resource settings" (2024). UK CARES Faculty Publications. 11.
https://uknowledge.uky.edu/ukcares_facpub/11
Included in
Environmental Chemistry Commons, Environmental Engineering Commons, Medicine and Health Sciences Commons
Notes/Citation Information
0048-9697/© 2023 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.