Reducing false negatives in COVID-19 testing by using microneedle-based oropharyngeal swabs

Chen, Wei; Cai, Bo; Geng, Zhi; Chen, Fenghua; Wang, Zheng; Wang, Lin; Chen, Xiaoyuan

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has become a severe threat to human health worldwide. Early etiological diagnosis plays a critical role in controlling COVID-19 pandemic. However, etiological diagnosis has been largely compromised by high "false negative" rates of viral nucleic acid testing, resulting from limited sampling efficiency using conventional oropharyngeal swabs. Herein, we engineer regular swabs by using a microneedle (MN) patch to significantly improve the quality and quantity of virus collection. The combination of MNs with different crosslinking levels endows the patches with dual capability of mucus penetration and virus extraction. Moreover, the antibody (Ab) against viral spike protein was integrated into the patch, conferring MNs with an active virus capture potential. By taking advantage of the biological and engineered species, it is believed the designed MN/Ab swabs could serve as a promising tool to improve current sampling efficiency with less "false negatives", contributing to the containment of COVID-19 pandemic.