Serological Test News and Research

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What are the challenges of SARS-CoV-2 serosurveillance in COVID-19 vaccine recipients?

An opinion paper by researchers from the US and Italy recently discussed various aspects of monitoring anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies before and after receiving COVID-19 vaccination to highlight the pros and cons of this monitoring strategy. This paper is published in the open-access journal Diagnostics.

9 Jun 2021

SARS-CoV-2 virus persistence in immunocompromised individuals

Positive severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) tests are frequently obtained from individuals that have already recovered from the virus in the past. They have therefore undergone seroconversion and bear the expected antibodies.

22 May 2021

Researchers conduct a SARS-CoV-2 serosurvey of blood donors in New Zealand

New research has been released, which focuses on the transmission and prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 in New Zealand, through a blood donor serosurvey.

22 Apr 2021

Study shows antibody responses persisting 10 months after SARS-CoV-2 infection

Researchers in Italy have conducted a study showing that patients who had tested positive for infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) still had neutralizing antibodies against the virus 10 months later.

24 Feb 2021

SARS-CoV-2 D614G mutation associated with lower antibody binding

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic has brought about an international effort to uncover the biology of its causative agent, SARS-CoV-2, and to develop effective and safe antivirals to contain and treat the infection. A new study by a team of researchers in France and Sweden discusses one such study, exploring the relative immunogenicity of the three main structural proteins of the virus.

18 Feb 2021

New platform for detecting and monitoring SARS-CoV-2 antibody responses

Researchers in the U.S. have released a new study that describes a powerful but inexpensive tool designed to detect and monitor specific antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 over time.

1 Feb 2021

How feasible is at-home antibody testing for COVID-19?

Researchers at King’s College, London, have found that self-administered, at-home antibody testing could be a simple method for virus surveillance on university campuses.

29 Jan 2021

SARS-CoV-2 exposure in England could be double reported seroprevalence

A new study that recently appeared on the preprint server medRxiv* makes use of a combined method to estimate population exposure to the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), taking into account the fact that patients who recover from the infection often do not have circulating antibodies against the virus.

11 Jan 2021

Seroprevalence and asymptomatic carrier status of SARS-CoV-2 in China

As asymptomatic transmission chains play a role in SARS-CoV-2’s viral spread, a new study by researchers in Wuhan, China, investigated the seroprevalence and asymptomatic carrier status of SARS-CoV-2 in the region.

11 Jan 2021

Reliable Antibodies Testing for SARS-CoV-2

In this interview, Poncho Meisenheimer, VP of R&D at Promega, talks to News-Medical Life Sciences about the importance of having the reliability for SARS-Co-V-2 antibody tests.

From Promega Corporation 15 Dec 2020

Duke-NUS expert joins international taskforce to study the origins of SARS-CoV-2 virus

Nearly a year since the world first learned of the novel coronavirus disease 2019, COVID-19, many questions remain about SARS-CoV-2, the virus behind this pandemic: Where did it come from, how did it spread so widely and rapidly, and how can we stop similar outbreaks in the future?

23 Nov 2020

Chicago seroprevalence study shows COVID-19 cases 16 times higher than currently predicted

A startling new case study of Chicago, led by a team of researchers at Northwestern University in Illinois, USA, suggests a 16-fold higher incidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection than previously thought. This is judging from seroprevalence (antibody presence blood testing) figures, rather than the number of RT-PCR-positives reported there (via swab sample testing of symptomatic patients).

23 Nov 2020

Seroprevalence meta-analysis predicts 643 million already infected by SARS-CoV-2 globally

A recent systematic review and meta-analysis conducted by a team of international scientists reveal low seroprevalence of anti-severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) antibodies in the general population.

19 Nov 2020

Mink farms potential viral reservoirs for SARS-CoV-2

A new study published in the journal Science in November 2020 describes the probable transmission of the virus between farmed minks and humans working on the mink farm, even with biosecurity measures in place and the culling of infected farms as soon as an infection is reported.

12 Nov 2020

Study suggests herd immunity to COVID-19 in New York City is low

Researchers in the United States have estimated that the proportion of people in New York City who developed antibodies against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) during the first wave of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is around one in eight.

9 Nov 2020

A cost-effective scalable production of SARS-CoV-2 RBD in yeast

A new study by the Argentinian AntiCovid Consortium and published in the preprint server bioRxiv* in September 2020 reports on the successful characterization of the conformation and stability of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein receptor-binding domain (RBD) in two different cell systems. This may help to accelerate the development of vaccines and neutralizing antibodies.

21 Sep 2020

Seroconversion marks recovery from COVID-19

Nine months into the COVID-19 pandemic, scientists are still seeking to understand the protective immunity that develops against the causative agent severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Despite the increasing need for serological tests in epidemiology, their clinical value has not been fully established. A new paper published in the Journal of Medical Virology in September 2020 describes the relationship of COVID-19 disease symptoms with the serological status over time.

11 Sep 2020

New serological test for COVID-19 helps determine herd immunity, vaccine efficacy

New COVID-19 test evaluates herd immunity and vaccine efficacy with high accuracy.

5 Aug 2020

SARS-CoV-2 exposure five times more likely among Black and Hispanic pregnant women

Black and Hispanic pregnant women in Philadelphia are five times as likely as white and Asian women to have been exposed to the novel coronavirus, according to a new study led by Scott Hensley, PhD, an associate professor of Microbiology in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, and Karen Marie Puopolo, MD, PhD, an associate professor of Pediatrics and neonatologist at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. The study was published today in Science Immunology.

29 Jul 2020

Scientists develop COVID-19 test to detect neutralizing antibodies with high sensitivity, specificity

According to a study published in Nature Biotechnology, the sVNT is capable of detecting the functional neutralizing antibodies (NAbs) that can block the binding of the coronavirus spike protein to the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) host receptor, which mimics the virus-host interaction.

25 Jul 2020