Kaziz Sameh, Saad Yosra, Bouzid Mohamed, Selmi Marwa, Belmabrouk Hafedh
Quantum and Statistical Physics Laboratory, Faculty of Sciences of Monastir, University of Monastir, Environment Boulevard, 5019 Monastir, Tunisia.
Higher National Engineering School of Tunis, Taha Hussein Montfleury Boulevard, University of Tunis, 1008 Tunis, Tunisia.
Microfluid Nanofluidics. 2021;25(10):86. doi: 10.1007/s10404-021-02490-3. Epub 2021 Sep 17.
The rapid spread and quick transmission of the new ongoing pandemic coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has urged the scientific community to looking for strong technology to understand its pathogenicity, transmission, and infectivity, which helps in the development of effective vaccines and therapies. Furthermore, there was a great effort to improve the performance of biosensors so that they can detect the pathogenic virus quickly, in reliable and precise way. In this context, we propose a numerical simulation to highlight the important role of the design parameters that can significantly improve the performance of the biosensor, in particular the sensitivity as well as the detection limit. Applied alternating current electrothermal (ACET) force can generate swirling patterns in the fluid within the microfluidic channel, which improve the transport of target molecule toward the reaction surface and, thus, enhance the response time of the biosensor. In this work, the ACET effect on the SARS-CoV-2 S protein binding reaction kinetics and on the detection time of the biosensor was analyzed. Appropriate choice of electrodes location on the walls of the microchannel and suitable values of the dissociation and association rates of the binding reaction, while maintaining the same affinity, with and without ACET effect, are also, discussed to enhance the total performance of the biosensor and reduce its response time. The two-dimensional equations system is solved by the finite element approach. The best performance of the biosensor is obtained in the case where the response time decreased by 61% with AC applying voltage.
新型冠状病毒肺炎（COVID-19）这一正在流行的大流行病迅速传播，促使科学界寻求强大的技术来了解其致病性、传播途径和传染性，这有助于开发有效的疫苗和疗法。此外，人们还付出了巨大努力来提高生物传感器的性能，以便它们能够快速、可靠且精确地检测出致病病毒。在此背景下，我们提出了一种数值模拟，以突出设计参数的重要作用，这些参数可显著提高生物传感器的性能，特别是灵敏度以及检测限。施加的交变电流电热（ACET）力可在微流控通道内的流体中产生涡旋模式，这改善了目标分子向反应表面的传输，从而提高了生物传感器的响应时间。在这项工作中，分析了ACET对严重急性呼吸综合征冠状病毒2（SARS-CoV-2）刺突蛋白结合反应动力学以及生物传感器检测时间的影响。还讨论了在微通道壁上电极位置的适当选择以及结合反应解离和缔合速率的合适值，同时在有和没有ACET效应的情况下保持相同的亲和力，以提高生物传感器的整体性能并减少其响应时间。二维方程组通过有限元方法求解。在施加交流电压时响应时间减少61%的情况下，生物传感器获得了最佳性能。
