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A new, different type of coronavirus test is coming that will help significantly in the fight to quell the COVID-19 pandemic, doctors and scientists say.

The first so-called serology test, which detects antibodies to the virus rather than the virus itself, was given emergency approval Thursday by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. And several more are nearly ready, said Dr. Elizabeth McNally, director of the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine Center for Genetic Medicine.

Youll see many of these roll out in the next couple of weeks, and its great, and it will really help a lot, said McNally, noting doctors and scientists will be able to use it to determine just how widespread the disease is, who can safely return to work and possibly how to develop new treatments for those who are ill.

The serology test involves taking a blood sample and determining if it contains the antibodies that fight the virus. A positive result indicates the person had the virus in the past and is currently immune.

That kind of test will be far easier to roll out and use than the complex nasal swab tests now being used to detect the active virus that causes COVID-19, she added, saying its possible that the antibody tests could be conducted in the confines of ones own home, much like a pregnancy test.

They will come in a variety of shapes and sizes, McNally said. "The simplest would be one that you do at home, that you would poke your finger and squeeze out a little blood and put it on a little strip, and itll be the plus-minus whether youve developed antibodies or not.

There are several benefits to having the test, including:

Determining how much of the population is infected.

One of the questions we are going to be asking is, How widespread was this virus? McNally said. "I think we have a lot of indication that its much more widespread than we know, because most of the younger people who get this get it relatively mildly, recover and do OK. And were not tracking any of those people right now.

Interestingly, the more people who have had it, the safer everyone is, under the concept of herd immunity.

The people who are already covered can actually provide protection to the people around them, just because its hard for the virus to spread, McNally said. The virus cant spread anymore, so people are less likely to get it.

Figuring out who can go back to work, particularly sidelined doctors and nurses, police officers and firefighters.

If a person is positive for antibodies, which likely show up two to six weeks after infection, theyre not going to get sick or spread the virus, because their bodies are killing it off. Once the antibodies come up in your system, that means your body fought it off, and you dont have active virus, McNally said.

It may also be important to test grocery store workers, McNally added, noting that buying food is one of the things thats still forcing people out of their homes. Thats one of the major points of contact, so where we can reduce that, especially in the next few weeks, I think thats going to be really critical, she said.

Getting a sense of how long immunity lasts.

Other coronaviruses that have been studied trigger antibodies that typically last one to three years. So the immunity likely isnt forever.

Are we seeing a sustained response thats going to help us prepare better for when this happens again, and it will happen again, McNally said. Thats what happens with viruses.

Possibly learning more about how to fight the disease, using antibody treatment.

Maybe these people that really did poorly (when they had COVID-19), maybe they were slow to develop antibodies, in which case this concept of giving them antibodies is actually a good concept to help treat people, McNally said. "So, theres so many things we will learn from the immune response to this virus.

Approval of the antibody test is something that public health officials have been talking about for weeks, saying it couldnt come fast enough.

When we have antibody testing, trust me, well be using that a lot, because well be looking to see if people have been exposed to coronavirus, Dr. Allison Arwady, Chicagos public health commissioner, said in a recent interview before the test was approved. Are they recovered? Will they be safe for working and caring for people?

Likewise, Dr. Robert Gallo, co-founder and director of the Institute of Human Virology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, described development of the test as imperative.

It allows the public health officials to better follow the epidemic," Gallo said. "Without the antibody test, its very hard to follow the epidemic with convenience of any kind.

Research wise, wouldnt it be really important to know if theres some aspect of the immune system that makes it worse, or if there are people correlating with some type of immune response that was really correlated with the symptoms being virtually nothing," he added. You would just be able to make really important conclusions, so we need the antibody test rather desperately.

Continue reading here:
Next coronavirus test can tell if you are now immune and its fast - Monmouth Daily Review Atlas

This entry was posted on April 9, 2020 at 8:41 am and is filed under Genetic medicine. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed. |