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One-year surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater from vulnerable urban communities in metropolitan São Paulo, Brazil

2022; UWA Publishing; Volume: 20; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.2166/wh.2022.210

1996-7829

Mikaela Renata Funada Barbosa, Suzi Cristina Garcia, Antonio Bruni, Flávio Silva Machado, Roberto Xavier de Oliveira, Milena Dropa, Antônio Charlys da Costa, Élcio Leal, Carlos Jesus Brandão, Renan Lourenço Oliveira Silva, Beatriz Yukie Iko, Victor Kenji Matsuoka Kondo, Ronalda Silva de Araújo, Vanessa Barbosa da Silveira, Tatiane Montes de Andrade, Danilo Rosa Nunes, Luiz Mário Janini, Carla Torres Braconi, Juliana T. Maricato, Maria Inês Zanoli Sato,

Advanced biosensing and bioanalysis techniques

The current COVID-19 pandemic has emphasized the vulnerability of communities living in the urban outskirts and informal settlements. The lack of reliable COVID-19 case data highlights the importance and application of wastewater-based epidemiology. This study aimed to monitor the COVID-19 trends in four vulnerable urban communities (slums and low-income neighborhoods) in metropolitan São Paulo by assessing the SARS-CoV-2 RNA viral load in wastewater. We analyzed 160 samples from May 2020 to June 2021 with weekly or fortnightly samplings. The samples were ultracentrifuged with glycine elution and quantified by N1/N2 SARS-CoV-2 RT-qPCR. The results of positivity were 100% (Paraisópolis, Heliópolis and Cidade Tiradentes) and 76.9% (Vila Brasilândia). The new case numbers of COVID-19, counted from the onset of symptoms, positively correlated with SARS-CoV-2 N1 viral loads from the two largest communities (p<0.001). SARS-CoV-2 infectivity was tested in Vero E6 cells after concentration with the two techniques, ultrafiltration (Centricon® Plus-70 10 kDa) and sucrose cushion ultracentrifugation, but none of the evaluated samples presented positive results. Next-generation sequencing (NGS) analysis from samples collected in March and August 2021 revealed the presence of the clade 20 J (lineage P.1) belonging to the most prevalent circulating variant in the country. Our results showed that wastewater surveillance data can be used as complementary indicators to monitor the dynamics and temporal trends of COVID-19. The infectivity test results strengthened the evidence of low risk of infection associated with SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater.