Researchers from the University of Yamanashi, Japan, conducted a study comparing the Concentrating Pipette™ Select (CP) to several other viral concentration methods for wastewater-based epidemiology and found that the CP was the fastest and easiest method. Using 0.05-micron filter tips, the CP achieved 100% effectiveness in detecting SARS-CoV-2 and was also effective with surrogate viruses.
40 mL samples were collected from three wastewater treatment plants in Japan to assess different preparation and concentration techniques. Concentration methods tested included the Concentrating Pipette (CP), PEG precipitation, and direct extraction, with variations on each. RNA was extracted using a Qiagen kit, and detection was via qPCR (Takara Biosciences).
Notably, while a Tween addition is highly recommended by InnovaPrep in their protocol, the researchers did not use it. Instead, they optimized the protocol by adding 500 µL of Protease and a 10-minute incubation step, which improved the concentration efficiency and enabled the detection of the lowest SARS-CoV-2 concentration, at 4.1 copies per mL.
“As for enteric viruses in wastewater samples, the CP Select™ method gave a comparable performance for virus detection and a more rapid processing time compared to other methods. In addition, the performance of the CP Select™ method should be further assessed to observe the applicability of this method for the simultaneous concentration of not only viruses but also bacteria and protozoa”. (read more Research Highlights for publications successfully concentrating bacteria and protozoa targets from difficult matrices).
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Optimization and performance evaluation of an automated filtration method for the recovery of SARS-CoV-2 and other viruses in wastewater Angga, et al. Science of the Total Environment 2023
