Pre-enriched saline gargle samples for detection of SARS-CoV-2.

Abstract

A self‑collected gargle sample, which avoids discomfort and largely reduces the dependency on medical resources, is emerging for detection of SARS‑CoV‑2. However, the incomplete usage of starting materials for both routine oropharyngeal swabs (OPS)/nasopharyngeal swabs (NPS) and saline gargle (SG) samples implies sensitivity can be further improved. Presented here is a bead‑based strategy for pre‑enrichment of SG samples, and results revealed that it acquired about 20 times the starting materials obtained from OPS samples for downstream detection of SARS‑CoV‑2. The sensitivity and specificity of this pre‑enrichment strategy were validated in 100 paired pre‑enriched saline gargle (PenSG) and OPS samples and 89 PenSG samples from healthy volunteers. In addition to detection of SARS‑CoV‑2, this pre‑enrichment strategy may also be implemented in more clinical settings to optimize detection of other diseases.