Peng Jiaxi, Sun Jianxian, Yang Minqing Ivy, Gibson Richard M, Arts Eric J, Olabode Abayomi S, Poon Art F Y, Wang Xianyao, Wheeler Aaron R, Edwards Elizabeth A, Peng Hui
Department of Chemistry, University of Toronto, 80 St George Street, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3H6, Canada.
Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research, University of Toronto, 160 College Street, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3E1, Canada.
Environ Sci Technol Lett. 2022 Jun 17;9(7):638-644. doi: 10.1021/acs.estlett.2c00280. eCollection 2022 Jul 12.
Wastewater surveillance has rapidly emerged as an early warning tool to track COVID-19. However, the early warning measurement of new SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern (VOCs) in wastewaters remains a major challenge. We herein report a rapid analytical strategy for quantitative measurement of VOCs, which couples nested polymerase chain reaction and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (nPCR-LC-MS). This method showed a greater selectivity than the current allele-specific quantitative PCR (AS-qPCR) for tracking new VOC and allowed the detection of multiple signature mutations in a single measurement. By measuring the Omicron variant in wastewaters across nine Ontario wastewater treatment plants serving over a three million population, the nPCR-LC-MS method demonstrated a better quantification accuracy than next-generation sequencing (NGS), particularly at the early stage of community spreading of Omicron. This work addresses a major challenge for current SARS-CoV-2 wastewater surveillance by rapidly and accurately measuring VOCs in wastewaters for early warning.
废水监测已迅速成为追踪新冠病毒的一种预警工具。然而，对废水中新出现的值得关注的严重急性呼吸综合征冠状病毒2（SARS-CoV-2）变异株进行预警监测仍然是一项重大挑战。我们在此报告一种用于定量测量变异株的快速分析策略，该策略将巢式聚合酶链反应与液相色谱-质谱联用（nPCR-LC-MS）。与目前用于追踪新变异株的等位基因特异性定量聚合酶链反应（AS-qPCR）相比，该方法具有更高的选择性，并且能够在一次测量中检测到多个特征性突变。通过对安大略省九家污水处理厂的废水进行检测，这些污水处理厂服务人口超过300万，nPCR-LC-MS方法在测量奥密克戎变异株时，显示出比下一代测序（NGS）更好的定量准确性，尤其是在奥密克戎社区传播的早期阶段。这项工作通过快速准确地测量废水中的变异株以进行预警，解决了当前SARS-CoV-2废水监测中的一项重大挑战。
