VirWaTest, 9 months later

At this moment, in the middle of the 18-months project, we are evaluating the efficiency of the developed concentration. Water samples are collected in 10-L foldable plastic containers and viruses are concentrated either by filtration or by organic flocculation. This part will depend on a 12V battery that may work coupled to a car. All the required equipment such as the container support, the battery, the magnetic stirrer and the filter holder have been designed and manufactured by Geniul, partners in this project.

Afterwards, the nucleic acids (DNA and/or RNA) of the concentrated viruses are extracted using magnetic beads. The application of several PCR-based methods, including quantitative PCR, are being evaluated at this moment.

The protocol developed until now, show good recoveries at the final concentrate. The percentage of viruses detected in the samples have been quantified for the detection of their genomes. With this new concentration protocol we analyze a great volume of 77,3 ml from the original water sample; and we detect 57% of the viral particles for DNA viruses, and 10% for RNA viruses.

At the moment we are working on the preservation of the concentrates at different temperatures for international shipping.