Abstract

The present dataset includes data generated as part of the ECLIPSE project (Work Package 3, Task 5), focusing on the electrochemiluminescence (ECL) response of working electrodes' gold surfaces modified with suitably-designed single strand DNA (ssDNA) probes, complementary to specific portions of the target nucleic acid (NA) to be detected (here, SARS-CoV-2 RNA; synthetic swabs used except for the real inactivated samples reported in the folder “ECL short real samples”). The aim of the work was to investigate the outcoming ECL response of the biosensing system in the presence of increasing amounts of the pathogenic RNA, upon addition of an intercalating luminophore (Ru(dppz) - able to intercalate only in the double strand structure formed between the ssDNA probes and the target NA) and potassium persulfate in solution as coreactant to ignite the ECL process. Two different NA extraction processes from its capsid have been studied (PCR-like or thermal extration), as well as different procedure timing (from a total of 5 hours to a total of 2 hours), and then the best conditions have been applied to the detection of real SARS-CoV-2 RNA samples. This work involved the use of completely anonymized SARS-CoV-2 RNA samples. The material was collected during the COVID–19 pandemic in compliance with the national state of emergency regulations, which authorized the collection and research use of such samples without the requirement for additional ethical clearance.