◎ Science and Technology Daily reporter Hualing
As the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics are about to be held, the prevention and control of the epidemic cannot be relaxed. In addition to the testing of people, objects, etc., how to detect the new crown virus in the environment inside and outside the Olympic venues?
"Compared with conventional methods such as throat swabs, it is very difficult to quickly detect the new crown virus in the air. The coronavirus is transmitted through aerosols in the air, and there has been no good way to collect aerosols. Because the content of viruses in the air is much lower than the content in the human body, and the new crown virus is an RNA virus, the stability is poor, and the air is always flowing, if it is delayed for too long, it will lose the significance of detection, which requires efficient sample collection and sensitive and accurate detection. On January 19, in the large-scale theme interview activity of the "Science and Technology Winter Olympics Enterprise Tour" jointly organized by the Propaganda Department of the Beijing Municipal Party Committee, the Beijing Municipal Science and Technology Commission and the Zhongguancun Administrative Committee, Liu Peng, a researcher at the School of Medicine of Tsinghua University, introduced to the reporter of Science and Technology Daily.
In order to solve the problem of aerosol detection, in accordance with the deployment of the Beijing Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government, with the strong support of the Beijing Municipal Science and Technology Commission and the Zhongguancun Administrative Committee, Liu Peng of Tsinghua University School of Medicine, Wang Jianbin of the School of Life Sciences, Bai Jingwei of the School of Pharmacy, together with Maosheng and Huang Yanyi of Peking University, Ren Lili and Changping Laboratory of the Institute of Pathogenic Biology of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, carried out emergency research in response to the new trends and challenges of the development of the new crown epidemic, and after 8 months of efforts, Development of a public space bioaerosol new coronavirus nucleic acid monitoring system.
In the bioaerosol testing laboratory in Changping, Beijing, Li Bao, a master's student in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Tsinghua University School of Medicine, operates a viral nucleic acid detection instrument. Only to see him take out 1 ml of the sample to be tested, put it into the detection chip, and then put the chip into the testing instrument. "The system can automatically detect results in 45 minutes, and is characterized by high sensitivity, which can achieve 20 copies per milliliter, while conventional methods require 200 to 500 copies per milliliter to detect."" he said. It can be said that the detection sensitivity is an order of magnitude higher than the existing technology. And it can be fully integrated automation, the reagent storage, fluid control, biomolecular detection and other concentrated in the chip and supporting instruments, without manual intervention, saving time and effort. ”
It is understood that Liu Peng and his team tested the aerosol nucleic acid detection system in Ditan Hospital in April 2021, carried out field collection of new coronavirus samples, and actually verified the system. At that time, the researchers took the patient's nasopharyngeal swab, saliva, exhaled gas and aerosol samples in the ward, and divided the samples into two, and simultaneously performed aerosol testing and routine testing. The results showed that the two detection methods were highly consistent, and the detection rate of the aerosol system was three times that of the existing PCR system.
In order to further promote the application of this technology in the Beijing Winter Olympics, the Beijing Municipal Science and Technology Commission and the Zhongguancun Administrative Committee took the lead, together with beijing municipal disease control, municipal food and drug administration, market supervision and administration, municipal metrology institute and other units and experts and scholars from various fields, clarified the market access conditions and safety issues in the use of this technology. From August to September 2021, the R&D team completed the third-party testing and enterprise standard self-declaration of the two products of the biological aerosol sampler and the automated fully integrated high-sensitivity new coronavirus nucleic acid detection system (environmental sample) in accordance with the instructions, and met the conditions for listing and sales. At the same time, the R&D team conducted full experimental verification in the P3 laboratory according to expert opinions, which proved the safety of aerosol collection.
From October to December of the same year, with the support of Changping Laboratory, the research team successively conducted aerosol sampling and testing at the Capital Gymnasium, the National Speed Skating Hall, the Ice Cube, the Wukesong Ice Center, the National Stadium, the Five Olympic Venues, the Main Media Center, and two contracted hotels. A total of 348 specimens were collected and tested during the test match, and the success rate of detection was 100%. The detection system has been widely used and verified in the Winter Olympic Test Games, and has been optimized accordingly according to the epidemic prevention conditions during the Games, which meets the requirements of the Winter Olympic Games. Moreover, through the practical exercises of the test match, the relevant products have formed a complete closed-loop management of the aerosol new crown virus monitoring operation specifications, which have been recognized by the epidemic prevention department of the Winter Olympic venues.
According to reports, during the Winter Olympics, aerosol specimens will be collected in various competition venues, and then the specimens will be transferred to the testing station for testing, and the results can be fed back to the epidemic prevention department within 4 hours to assist them in taking further measures according to the results. It is worth mentioning that according to Liu Peng, this system does not "pick" the strain, even the latest mutation of the Omikerong strain, it can not escape its detection.
"Among the epidemic prevention and control measures, air environment testing is one of the important parts of the overall epidemic prevention system. Our technical application, which is equivalent to a link in the epidemic prevention system of the event, plays a role in supplementing and early warning. Liu Peng stressed.
The picture in the article was taken by Hua Ling, a reporter of Science and Technology Daily
Source: Science and Technology Daily