부산대학교 도서관

Fast and highly sensitive detection has become critical to prevent the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). However, fast analysis tends to reduce the sensitivity and accuracy of such method. This study is to investigate a fast and highly sensitive screening method for detecting polymerase chain reaction (PCR) products of SARS-CoV-2 through voltageprogrammed capillary gel electrophoretic separation. By separating and detecting the PCR products of RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) and spike (S) genes, we have diagnosed coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases within 4 min using such method with high reliability and accuracy, indicating at least a 7.5-fold faster than previous COVID-19 diagnostic methods. The detection limits of RdRp and S genes fragments were 1.34–3.46 pM. The developed method can be used to analyze PCR products with specific DNA sizes as well as detect SARS-CoV-2 mutations without losing resolution. Furthermore, it can also be used for the fast analysis of DNA molecules related with various infectious diseases.