Department of Surgery-Transplant and Mary & Dick Holland Regenerative Medicine Program, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, Nebraska 68130, United States.
National Strategic Research Institute, Omaha, Nebraska 68106, United States.
Nano Lett. 2021 Feb 10;21(3):1508-1516. doi: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.0c04956. Epub 2021 Jan 27.
Following the COVID-19 outbreak, swabs for biological specimen collection were thrust to the forefront of healthcare materials. Swab sample collection and recovery are vital for reducing false negative diagnostic tests, early detection of pathogens, and harvesting DNA from limited biological samples. In this study, we report a new class of nanofiber swabs tipped with hierarchical 3D nanofiber objects produced by expanding electrospun membranes with a solids-of-revolution-inspired gas foaming technique. Nanofiber swabs significantly improve absorption and release of proteins, cells, bacteria, DNA, and viruses from solutions and surfaces. Implementation of nanofiber swabs in SARS-CoV-2 detection reduces the false negative rates at two viral concentrations and identifies SARS-CoV-2 at a 10× lower viral concentration compared to flocked and cotton swabs. The nanofiber swabs show great promise in improving test sensitivity, potentially leading to timely and accurate diagnosis of many diseases.
在 COVID-19 爆发之后，用于生物标本采集的拭子成为了医疗保健材料的前沿。拭子样本的采集和回收对于减少假阴性诊断测试、早期发现病原体以及从有限的生物样本中提取 DNA 至关重要。在这项研究中，我们报告了一类新的纳米纤维拭子，其尖端带有通过旋转体启发的气体发泡技术扩展静电纺丝膜而产生的分层 3D 纳米纤维物体。纳米纤维拭子显著提高了从溶液和表面吸收和释放蛋白质、细胞、细菌、DNA 和病毒的能力。与纤维拭子和棉签相比，将纳米纤维拭子应用于 SARS-CoV-2 检测可降低两种病毒浓度下的假阴性率，并能以低 10 倍的病毒浓度识别 SARS-CoV-2。纳米纤维拭子在提高检测灵敏度方面具有广阔的应用前景，有可能实现对许多疾病的及时和准确诊断。
