In collaboration with the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology, researchers from the Antimicrobial Resistance Interdisciplinary Research Group have developed a rapid point-of-care test for the detection of neutralizing antibodies for SARS-CoV-2.
The COVID Immunity Test Takes Ten Minutes ?
Only a drop of blood needs to be removed from a fingertip, and the test can be completed in less than five minutes by untrained personnel without a laboratory. Many countries do not currently offer similar NAb tests commercially as they also have got some better options for easy and quick results of the test.
Several countries have enacted strict measures to minimize cross-border social interaction and transmission of SARS-CoV-2. However, although surveillance and prevention can be improved to a certain extent, they have had serious adverse effects on economies and livelihoods, and the path to regaining normalcy involves gaining immunity against the virus either naturally or through mass vaccination.
The presence of SARS-CoV-2 NAbs must be screened on a large and rapid scale to assess herd immunity and the effectiveness of vaccine immunization programs.
The natural immune response of the body results in the generation of NAbs either by exposure to the virus or through vaccination. The production of NAbs must be sufficient for the effective prevention of viral infections.
When individuals possess protective immunity to the virus, the amount of NAbs can be used to determine their risk of acquiring severe outcomes should they become infected. If individuals are vaccinated against the virus, NAb testing can determine if a booster shot is needed.
Even though diagnostic tests for COVID-19 are available, SARS-CoV-2 NAbs are typically detected in hospitals and specialized diagnostic labs. In most cases, NAbs are currently detected using virus neutralization tests (VNTs), which require handling live viruses, two to four days of processing time, and a facility with strict biosafety and containment precautions.
Because these tests also involve a lengthy process, they are unsuitable for large-scale population screening and surveillance. In the development of more efficient methods of testing, mass monitoring is more easily conducted at point-of-care or at locations where there is a high volume of traffic, as well as critical entry points, like immigration checkpoints.
Dr. Megan McBee, scientific director at SMART AMR, says that as borders, economies, and societies open up, we need the right data and tests to prepare for the future without hindering our efforts to curb the spread of diseases.
A simplified, non-invasive, and quick test has been developed. As a user performs the test, a drop of fingertip blood is mixed with the reaction solutions and placed on a strip of paper, then inserted into a portable reader which detects NAb signals and displays the results. Compared to similarly designed lab-based tests, this test offers 93% accuracy.
“The exam will now be beneficial to schools and universities. This basic check can also determine if an individual should indeed be regarded for an injector immunization because the data are found in minutes from a thumb sample of blood.
And, when we can easily identify immune function on a wider scale, we can evaluate and unwind COVID-related initiatives in a much more governed, statistics way “Professor Hadley Sikes, lead researcher at SMART AMR, correlate professor, and founder author of the study, commented on the findings.
The NAb test can also be modified to detect immunity against the other variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, according to its co-corresponding author, Professor Peter Preiser, the associate vice president for Biomedical and life sciences at NTU Singapore. Several vaccines may be effective against each variant, or one may wish to avoid traveling to areas where a specific variant is common.”
