Quantum-enhanced nanodiamond rapid test advances early SARS-CoV-2 antigen detection in clinical diagnostics.

IF 15.7 1区综合性期刊 Q1 MULTIDISCIPLINARY SCIENCES

Nature Communications Pub Date : 2025-10-02 DOI:10.1038/s41467-025-63066-1

Alyssa Thomas DeCruz, Benjamin S Miller, Da Huang, Max McRobbie, Felix Donaldson, Laura E McCoy, Ciara K O'Sullivan, Johannes C Botha, Eleni Nastouli, Rachel A McKendry

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Abstract

Quantum biosensors, which harness quantum effects to detect biomarkers, could address the urgent need for more sensitive rapid diagnostics. Lateral flow tests using nitrogen-vacancy centres in nanodiamond labels offer high sensitivity and robustness by controlling the spin-dependent fluorescence to remove background. This is particularly important in complex and variable clinical samples. However, to date only model systems have been studied with few clinical samples. Here we show results of a clinical evaluation of a spin-enhanced nanodiamond test for SARS-CoV-2 antigen with 103 upper respiratory tract swab samples. We find 95.1% sensitivity (Ct ≤ 30) and 100% specificity benchmarked against RT-qPCR, with no cross-reactivity to influenza A, RSV, and Rhinovirus. Modelling with patient data yields a mean of 2.0-days earlier detection compared to conventional gold-nanoparticle tests (just 0.6 days after RT-qPCR) with 2.2-fold more patients detected on the first day of symptom onset, potentially reducing the transmission risk and protecting populations.

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量子增强纳米金刚石快速检测技术推动临床诊断早期检测新冠病毒抗原

量子生物传感器利用量子效应来检测生物标志物，可以解决对更灵敏的快速诊断的迫切需求。利用纳米金刚石标签中的氮空位中心进行横向流动测试，通过控制自旋依赖的荧光来去除背景，提供了高灵敏度和鲁棒性。这在复杂多变的临床样本中尤为重要。然而，到目前为止，只有模型系统已经研究了很少的临床样本。在这里，我们展示了对103个上呼吸道拭子样本进行SARS-CoV-2抗原自旋增强纳米金刚石检测的临床评估结果。我们发现95.1%的灵敏度（Ct≤30）和100%的特异性以RT-qPCR为基准，对甲型流感、RSV和鼻病毒无交叉反应。与传统的金纳米颗粒测试（RT-qPCR后仅0.6天）相比，利用患者数据建模的结果平均提前2.0天检测到，在症状出现的第一天检测到的患者多2.2倍，这可能降低传播风险并保护人群。

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来源期刊

Nature Communications Biological Science Disciplines-

CiteScore

24.90

自引率

2.40%

发文量

6928

审稿时长

3.7 months

期刊介绍： Nature Communications, an open-access journal, publishes high-quality research spanning all areas of the natural sciences. Papers featured in the journal showcase significant advances relevant to specialists in each respective field. With a 2-year impact factor of 16.6 (2022) and a median time of 8 days from submission to the first editorial decision, Nature Communications is committed to rapid dissemination of research findings. As a multidisciplinary journal, it welcomes contributions from biological, health, physical, chemical, Earth, social, mathematical, applied, and engineering sciences, aiming to highlight important breakthroughs within each domain.