Rapid non- invasive detection of Influenza- A- infection by multicapillary column coupled ion mobility spectrometry

Steppert, C.; Steppert, I.; Bollinger, T.; Sterlacci, W.

Infectious pathogens are a global issue. Global air travelling offers an easy and fast opportunity not only for people but also for infectious diseases to spread around the world within a few days. Therefore a rapid on-site screening of infected people is urgently needed. Due to the small size and easy handling, the ion mobility spectrometry coupled with a multicapillary column (MCC-IMS) is a very promising, sensitive method for the on-site identification of infectious pathogens based on scents, volatile organic compounds (VOCs). The purpose of this study was to prospectively assess whether differentiation between patients suffering from common cold and those from Influenza-A-infection based on VOCs with MCC-IMS is possible. Nasal breath was investigated in 24 consecutive patients suspected of having Influenza-A-infection by MCC-IMS. In 14 Influenza-A-infected patients, infection was proven by PCR of nasopharyngeal swabs. Ten patients with negative PCR diagnosis served as controls. For picking up relevant VOCs in MCC-IMS spectra, software based on cluster analysis followed by multivariate statistical analysis was applied. With only four VOCs canonical discriminant analysis was able to distinguish Influenza-A-infected patients from PCR- negative patients with 100% sensitivity and 100% specificity. This present proof-of-concept- study yields encouraging results showing a rapid diagnosis of viral infections in nasal breath within 5 minutes by MCC-IMS. The next step is to validate the results with a greater number of patients with Influenza-A-infection as well as other viral diseases. Registration number at ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04282135.