Biochemists develop rapid antibody test for new COVID strains

Biochemists have developed a test system that allows assessing the level of antibodies in the blood to all new strains of SARS-CoV-2 with one drop of blood from a finger, and the result can be obtained in just 10 minutes, Report informs referring to TASS.

Typically, to detect antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 and other viruses, doctors take a venous blood sample and send it to specialized centers for processing. This doesn’t always allow to carry out antibody tests at a great distance from laboratories and slows down the receipt of results.

Biochemists from the US and Singapore have developed a new rapid test that can solve this problem. The test can not only determine if there are antibodies in the blood, but also estimate their approximate amount.

The test is a paper strip that is soaked in a solution containing scraps of coronavirus envelope proteins that can bond to the paper. They are mixed with a patient’s blood sample and a luminous dye, which contains molecules of the ACE2 protein that the coronavirus uses to enter cells.

If there are antibodies to different strains of coronavirus in the patients' system, they will prevent the ACE2 protein from connecting with fragments of the coronavirus envelope. As a result, fewer “tinted” viral particles will settle on the paper, which makes it possible in just 10 minutes to determine whether there are antibodies in the sample and to estimate their approximate quantity based on the decrease in the luminescence of the dye.