There are two kinds of testing for COVID-19: viral tests and antibody tests. The former tests if a person is currently infected with the virus, while the latter is a test to know if someone once had the virus.
A coronavirus antibody test from Australia can deliver a positive or negative diagnosis in just 20 minutes. Photo credits: Screenshot from YouTube
Testing is important for identifying new cases as well as help with studies on herd immunity and vaccine development.
According to a report by BGR, a team of scientists in Australia has developed an antibody test that can deliver results (positive or negative) in just 20 minutes. This test is visible to the naked eye, and can be used to detect recently infected patients and those who survived COVID-19.
Coronavirus Testing
Coronavirus testing remains a problem, although it is not as bad as during the first few months of the pandemic. Since then, testing rate have gone up significantly but the world needs even more testing to find the most dangerous type of COVID-19 patient.
These are the asymptomatic patients who continues to spread the virus. Some politicians think that the increase in testing is what's causing the surge. But this is false because without sustained community spread, the percentage of positive cases would be low as the volume of testing increases.
According to recent reports, some laboratories are already overwhelmed and results are taking as long as a week before it arrives. Indeed, that time is way too long.
Fortunately, researchers from Australia developed a new blood test that can deliver a positive or negative result within 20 minutes. It determines people who have just been infected and those who already beat the virus.
Antibody Test Can Offer a Response Within 20 Minutes
Headed by Monash University, this blood test is described as "world-first research." As its name suggests, the test involves blood which means that it could have shortcomings as antibodies only start circulating in the bloodstream after days of getting infected from the virus.
Moreover, it may not work on patients who survived the disease months ago, as recent study suggests antibodies can disappear just after two to three months after recovery.
But Monash University's test can offer results in just 20 minutes, so it can be used to increase the volume of antibody testing in places who are experiencing surges of cases. Additionally, the test can also help with contact tracing and vaccine distribution.
In the angglutination assay made by the Australian scientists, the test will be able to determine the presence and amount of a certain substance in the blood which would allow doctors to test up to 200 blood samples an hour; for high-grade hospitals they can run up to 700 blood samples per hour.
The Australian scientists combined reagent red blood cells (RRBCs) with short peptides from pieces of the spike protein from the coronavirus and with serum or plasma that contains antibodies.
According to them, if the patient had developed antibodies, these would bind to the fragments of the virus, and blood clots would be visible to the naked eye. While in negative results, there will be no chemical reaction observed.
"We found that by producing bioconjugates of anti-D-IgG and peptides from SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, and immobilizing these to RRBCs, selective agglutination in gel cards was observed in the plasma collected from patients recently infected with SARS-CoV-2 in comparison to healthy plasma and negative controls," said Professor Gil Garnier the BioPRIA director.
"Importantly, negative control reactions involving either SARS-CoV-2-negative samples, or RRBCs and SARS-CoV-2-positive samples without bioconjugates, all revealed no agglutination behavior," he added.
