University of Monastir, Faculty of Pharmacy, LR99-ES27, Monastir, Tunisia E-mail:
Directorate of Milieu Hygiene and Environmental Protection at the Health Ministry, Tunis, Tunisia.
J Water Health. 2023 Mar;21(3):354-360. doi: 10.2166/wh.2023.264.
Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) could be useful as an early warning system for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic spread. Viruses are highly diluted in wastewater. Therefore, a virus concentration step is needed for SARS-CoV-2 wastewater detection. We tested the efficiency of three wastewater viral concentration methods: ultrafiltration (UF), electronegative membrane filtration and aluminum hydroxide adsorption-elution. We spiked wastewater with inactivated SARS-CoV-2 and we collected 20 other wastewater samples from five sites in Tunisia. Samples were concentrated by the three methods and SARS-CoV-2 was quantified by reverse transcription digital PCR (RT-dPCR). The most efficient method was UF with a mean SARS-CoV-2 recovery of 54.03 ± 8.25. Moreover, this method provided significantly greater mean concentration and virus detection ability (95%) than the two other methods. The second-most efficient method used electronegative membrane filtration with a mean SARS-CoV-2 recovery of 25.59 ± 5.04% and the least efficient method was aluminum hydroxide adsorption-elution. This study suggests that the UF method provides rapid and straightforward recovery of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater.
基于污水的流行病学（WBE）可以作为严重急性呼吸系统综合症冠状病毒 2（SARS-CoV-2）大流行传播的早期预警系统。病毒在污水中高度稀释。因此，需要进行病毒浓缩步骤来检测 SARS-CoV-2 污水。我们测试了三种污水病毒浓缩方法的效率：超滤（UF）、负电膜过滤和氢氧化铝吸附洗脱。我们用灭活的 SARS-CoV-2 对污水进行了加标，并且从突尼斯的五个地点收集了 20 个其他污水样本。用这三种方法对样本进行浓缩，并通过逆转录数字 PCR（RT-dPCR）对 SARS-CoV-2 进行定量。超滤是最有效的方法，平均 SARS-CoV-2 回收率为 54.03 ± 8.25%。此外，该方法的平均浓度和病毒检测能力（95%）明显高于其他两种方法。第二种最有效的方法是使用负电膜过滤，平均 SARS-CoV-2 回收率为 25.59 ± 5.04%，而最不有效的方法是氢氧化铝吸附洗脱。本研究表明，超滤法可快速、直接地从污水中回收 SARS-CoV-2。
