The Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC) has launched a new serological test for covid-19 antibodies with a reliability close to 100%, developed by its researchers in collaboration with the Madrid hospitals of La Princesa and La Paz, and produced by the Spanish biotechnology company Immunostep.
The test is based on a virus protein that has not been used in diagnosis and that can act as an antigen to reveal the immune response against SARS-CoV-2.
The test detects three types of antibodies and allows to know the people who have been in contact with the coronavirus and have been immunized. It is a very useful tool to identify people who have developed immune protection against the coronavirus, and to design an efficient vaccination strategy for the population. With this test, it is possible to distinguish which people have generated a response to the vaccine from those who have been infected and respond to the complete virus.
The test is presented in Elisa kit format with all the reagents to reveal the presence of antibodies in the patient’s blood. It is carried out in the laboratory and offers results in about two hours. The test has been patented through the CSIC’s Deputy Vice-Presidency for Knowledge Transfer and has been licensed to the company Immunostep.
“The main novelty of the test is that it is based on viral proteins that until now had not been studied for use in diagnosis,” explains Mar Valés, a researcher at the CSIC National Center for Biotechnology (CNB-CSIC), who has co-led the work of investigation.
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