Scientists develop fast antibody blood test for COVID-19

The key to containing the COVID-19 pandemic is to begin diagnostic testing early, as the SARS-CoV-2-the virus that causes the disease-can spread too fast and one can have the virus for several days without showing any symptom. Testing becomes most important because infected persons can unknowingly transmit the virus to others around.

Now, a proof-of-concept study published in American Chemical Society's Analytical Chemistry describes a quick, sensitive test for antibodies-the proteins in a person's body that are activated in response to a person acquiring the coronavirus in human blood.

To help identify people with current or past exposure to SARS-CoV-2, Lei Yu, Yingsong Wu, Guanfeng Lin and colleagues wanted to develop a fast, sensitive antibody test. The test could help doctors track a person's exposure to the disease, as well as confirm suspected COVID-19 cases that tested negative by other methods.

Because COVID-19 symptoms range from mild to severe, with some people apparently having no symptoms, the number of people who have been infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus at some point is likely much higher than the number of confirmed cases.

As the world begin to ease lockdown restrictions, widespread testing of the general population will be important to identify people at early stages of disease, or people who lack symptoms but can still infect others. Also, although more research needs to be done, it is possible that people with antibodies to the virus could be immune to future COVID-19 outbreaks.

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