Vaccines are turning the tide in the pandemic, but the risk of infection is still present in some situations. If you want to visit a friend, get on a plane, or go see a movie, there is no highly accurate, instant test that can tell you right then and there whether or not you have a SARS-CoV-2 infection. But new research from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) could help get reliable instant tests on the market.
A study led by Michal Hammel and Curtis D. Hodge suggests that a highly sensitive lateral flow assay – the same type of device used in home pregnancy tests – could be developed using pairs of rigid antibodies that bind to the SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid protein. Such a test would only require a small drop of mucus or saliva, could give results in 15 minutes, and could detect a COVID-19 infection one day before the onset of symptoms. Their work was published in the journal mABs.
The current gold standard tests for COVID-19 use a form of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to identify the presence of SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acid (RNA) rather than a viral protein. They are quite accurate, with false negative rates ranging less then 5% (depending primarily on the sampling site, sample type, and stage of infection). However, PCR tests must be sent away for analysis at an accredited lab.
Read more on the Berkeley Lab website
Image: Molecular models constructed from the X-ray data show different antibodies bound to the SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid protein (pink). The scientists determined that the linear arrangement (right) has higher detection sensitivity than the sandwich arrangement (left).
Credit: Berkeley Lab