Abstract
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV2) has so far infected almost a hundred of millions of people and caused more than a million of death across the world. Many serological tests have been developed to track down virus infection in community via identification of antibodies against SARS-CoV2 virus. However, the tests vary in sensitivity, specificity, complexity, and speed. Here, I developed a simple, one-step, quick test to detect antibodies against SARS-CoV2 N (scN) nucleocapsid protein via direct visualization of antigen-antibody reaction. A total of 40 serum samples of SARS-CoV2 patients were purchased from RayBiotech. A total of 50 pre-pandemic human serum samples from San Diego Blood Bank were used as negative controls. After performing the one-step quick test of these 90 serum samples, I found that 39 samples are positive for anti-scN antibodies. All of the 39 positives are from the 40 SARS-CoV2 patients, suggesting that the one-step test is more sensitive than the lateral flow immunoassay (LFIA), the most widely used rapid antibody test. None of the 50 pre-pandemic samples is positive for anti-scN antibodies, indicating that the one-step test has an excellent specificity. The one-step test takes only ~5 min to detect the antibodies; and 1 ml of Escherichia coli culture can produce reagent proteins sufficient for thousands of the tests. Since the one-step test does not need a secondary antibody, it can be used as a universal test for anti-scN antibodies across different mammalian species to track down both human infection and the animal reservoir of SARS-CoV2 virus.
Highlights
Antibodies, the biomarkers for a variety of human diseases, infectious diseases (Peruski & Peruski, 2003), can be detected by many laboratory immunoassays such as enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), Western blot, cell-based assays, immunohistochemistry, etc
ELISA, lateral flow immunoassay (LFIA), and direct chemiluminescence immunoassay (CLIA) are three assays mostly used in serological tests of human SARS-CoV2 infection (Espejo et al, 2020)
No fluorescence background was observed in the antibody aggregates from the control human serum, whereas strong fluorescence persists in the antigen-antibody aggregates from human serum containing the rabbit antibodies against SARS-CoV2 N proteins
Summary
Antibodies, the biomarkers for a variety of human diseases, infectious diseases (Peruski & Peruski, 2003), can be detected by many laboratory immunoassays such as enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), Western blot, cell-based assays, immunohistochemistry, etc. The pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by SARS-CoV2 virus creates a sense of urgency for the development of rapid antibody tests with a high sensitivity and specificity to track down virus infection in community and provide clinical point-of-care for patients. ELISA, lateral flow immunoassay (LFIA), and direct chemiluminescence immunoassay (CLIA) are three assays mostly used in serological tests of human SARS-CoV2 infection (Espejo et al, 2020). A novel one-step quick assay for detection of SARS-COV2 antibodies across mammalian species.
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