Human ACE2 Peptide-Attached Plasmonic-Magnetic Heterostructure for Magnetic Separation, Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy Identification, and Inhibition of Different Variants of SARS-CoV-2 Infections.

The emergence of Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and Omicron variants of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is responsible for several million deaths up to now. Because of the huge amount of vaccine escape mutations in the spike (S) protein for different variants, the design of material for combating SARS-CoV-2 is very important for our society. Herein, we report on the design of a human angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) peptide-conjugated plasmonic-magnetic heterostructure, which has the capability for magnetic separation, identification via surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS), and inhibition of different variant SARS-CoV-2 infections. In this work, plasmonic-magnetic heterostructures were developed using the initial synthesis of polyethylenimine (PEI)-coated Fe