Scientists develop fast antibody blood test for COVID-19

The researchers based their test on a technique called a lateral flow immunoassay (LFA), which is similar to a home pregnancy test. They attached a viral coat protein to a specific region on a strip of nitrocellulose, and then added human serum. The serum flowed from one end of the strip to the other, and any antibodies against the viral protein bound to that region on the strip. Then, the team detected the anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies with a fluorescently labelled antibody. This fluorescence-based detection is much more sensitive than some other LFAs, such as pregnancy tests, that can be read by the naked eye.

The researchers tested the new assay on seven serum samples from Covid-19 patients and 12 samples from people who had tested negative for the disease by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), a common diagnostic test that occasionally fails to detect positive cases.

The new assay correctly diagnosed all seven samples as positive-as well as an additional 'negative' case that had suspicious clinical symptoms-in only 10 minutes per sample. The immunoassay proved effective in confirming negative diagnoses, monitoring a patient's recovery, studying past exposures, and identifying recovered individuals with high levels of antibodies as potential convalescent plasma donors, the researchers said.

Source: theweek

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