A team from SPI in Marcoule discovered by mass spectrometry, in just 3 minutes and without specific reagents, signature peptides of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in clinical samples (nasopharyngeal swabs). It hence gives a proof of concept concerning the usage of the technique as a potential option to PCR, now the reference process.

<span style="color: #ff6600;"><a style="color: #ff6600;" href="http://joliot.cea.fr/drf/joliot/en/Pages/news/Science/2020/SARS-CoV-2-detection-mass-spectrometry-rapidity.aspx">Quick but nonetheless sensitive, specific and high-throughput discovery of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in clinical trials is critical to diagnose infected individuals and also to better manage the spread of this virus.</a> </span>Alternative methodologies to PCR and immunodiagnostic that would not require certain reagents are not worth to investigate not only for fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, but also to discover other emergent pathogenic dangers.

<span style="color: #ff6600;"><a style="color: #ff6600;" href="http://joliot.cea.fr/drf/joliot/en/Pages/news/Science/2020/SARS-CoV-2-detection-mass-spectrometry-rapidity.aspx">In the present study, scientists in SPI (Marcoule) propose the use of tandem mass spectrometry to detect SARS-CoV-2 marker peptides in nasopharyngeal swabs.</a> </span>They recorded that the sign from the microbiota within such samples is low and can be overlooked when translating shotgun proteomic data obtained on a restricted window of the peptidome landscape.

Within this proof of concept research, simili nasopharyngeal swabs compromised with unique amounts of purified SARS-CoV-2 viral material had been used to create a nanoLC-MS/MS acquisition method, which was subsequently successfully implemented to COVID-19 clinical trials. Researchers assert that two peptides in the nucleocapsid protein are of extreme attention as their signal is intense and their elution can be gotten within a 3 minute window at the tested conditions.

These effects pave the way for the progression of implements viral diagnostic evaluations based on mass spectrometry.
<div class="content-src-label"><strong>Source:</strong></div>
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<span style="color: #ff6600;"><a style="color: #ff6600;" href="http://joliot.cea.fr/drf/joliot/en/Pages/news/Science/2020/SARS-CoV-2-detection-mass-spectrometry-rapidity.aspx" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Frédéric Joliot Institute for Life Sciences</a></span>

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<div class="content-src-label"><strong>Journal reference:</strong></div>
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Gouveia, D., <em>et al. </em>(2020) Proteotyping SARS-CoV-2 Virus from Nasopharyngeal Swabs: A Proof-of-Concept Focused on a 3 Min Mass Spectrometry Window. <em>Journal of Proteome Research</em>.  <span style="color: #ff6600;"><a style="color: #ff6600;" href="http://gouveia%2C%20d.%2C%20et%20al.%20%282020%29%20proteotyping%20sars-cov-2%20virus%20from%20nasopharyngeal%20swabs:%20A%20Proof-of-Concept%20Focused%20on%20a%203%20Min%20Mass%20Spectrometry%20Window.%20Journal%20of%20Proteome%20Research.%C2%A0%20doi.org/10.1021/acs.jproteome.0c00535." target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">doi.org/10.1021/acs.jproteome.0c00535</a>.</span>

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