SBIR/STTR Award attributes
In this Phase II SBIR, Mesa Photonics proposes to clinically validate its new test system for detecting SARS coronaviruses. The test uses a tongue scrape sample as a specimen that is easily and painlessly collected by subjects themselves. A simple response, positive or negative, is produced in < 15 minutes in an existing, portable, battery-operated handheld fluorometer. The test measures the activity of a SARS coronavirus enzyme in infected cells. The enzyme is a protease that cleaves a four amino acid protein fragment (tetrapeptide) that releases fluorescence when it is cleaved. Another peptide is used as a positive control and fluoresces when it is cleaved by Angiotensin Converting Enzyme 2 (ACE2). In Phase I we show that the fluorescence of both peptides can be read simultaneously in one sample. The SARS tetrapeptide is reportedly cleaved only by SARS-CoV-1 and SARS-CoV-2 and not by MERS. In Phase I, we show that it is also not cleaved by human proteases present in active tongue scrape lysate or by proteases from three other coronaviruses. A detection limit of ~15,000 229E coronaviruses in
