Journal Article

A haemagglutination test for rapid detection of antibodies to SARS-CoV-2

Semple, Malcolm G., Supasa, Piyada, Screaton, Gavin R., Huo, Jiandong, Turtle, Lance C. W., Gupta, Nimesh, Dold, Christina, Lockett, Teresa, Hoosdally, Sarah, Rijal, Pramila, Matthews, Philippa C., Beer, Sally, Conlon, Christopher P., Georgiou, Dominique, Allcock, Alice, Xiao, Julie, Thraves, Hannah, Barnes, Eleanor, Frater, John, Ainsworth, Mark, Tsang, Hoi Pat, Mongkolsapaya, Juthathip, Townsend, Alain, Karpe, Fredrik, Bibi, Sagida, Sobrinodiaz, Alberto, Stoesser, Nicole, Stafford, Lizzy, Openshaw, Peter J. M., O’Donnell, Denise, Jeffrey, Katie, Mendoza, Maria, Joly, Etienne, Klenerman, Paul, Martinez, Jose, Street, Teresa, Schimanski, Lisa, Scozzafava, Giuseppe, Rahikainen, Rolle, Neville, Matthew, Knight, Julian C., Baillie, J. Kenneth, Tan, Tiong Kit, Arancibia-Cárcamo, Carolina V., Rudkin, Justine, Clutterbuck, Elizabeth, Perez, Elena, Bown, Abbie, Espinosa, Alexis, Crook, Derrick, Dejnirattisai, Wanwisa, Vipond, Richard, Huang, Kuan-Ying A., Skelly, Donal, Gallardo Sanchez, Veronica, Ploeg, Rutger, Roberts, David J., Dunachie, Susanna, Lamikanra, Abigail A., Mentzer, Alexander J., Kwok, Andrew J.

2021

Overview

Serological detection of antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 is essential for establishing rates of seroconversion in populations, and for seeking evidence for a level of antibody that may be protective against COVID-19 disease. Several high-performance commercial tests have been described, but these require centralised laboratory facilities that are comparatively expensive, and therefore not available universally. Red cell agglutination tests do not require special equipment, are read by eye, have short development times, low cost and can be applied at the Point of Care. Here we describe a quantitative Haemagglutination test (HAT) for the detection of antibodies to the receptor binding domain of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein. The HAT has a sensitivity of 90% and specificity of 99% for detection of antibodies after a PCR diagnosed infection. We will supply aliquots of the test reagent sufficient for ten thousand test wells free of charge to qualified research groups anywhere in the world. Serological detection of antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 can help establish rates of seroconversion. Here the authors develop a red cell agglutination test to detect antibodies against the receptor binding domain for distribution free of charge to qualified research groups.

• Publisher: Nature Publishing Group UK,Nature Publishing Group,Nature Portfolio
• Subject: 13 / 13/1 / 13/31 / 631/250/2152/2153/1291 / 631/326/596/4130 / 692/308/174 / 692/53/2421 / Adaptive immunology / Agglutination / Agglutination Tests / Agglutination Tests - methods / Antibodies / Antibodies, Monoclonal / Antibodies, Monoclonal - immunology / Antibodies, Viral / Antibodies, Viral - analysis / Antibodies, Viral - blood / Antibodies, Viral - immunology / Binding / Bioengineering / Cell agglutination / COVID-19 / COVID-19 - blood / COVID-19 - diagnosis / COVID-19 - immunology / COVID-19 - virology / COVID-19 Testing / COVID-19 Testing - methods / Domains / Emerging diseases / Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay / Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay - methods / Hemagglutination / Hemagglutination Tests / Hemagglutination Tests - methods / Human health and pathology / Humanities and Social Sciences / Humans / Immunology / Infectious diseases / Life Sciences / multidisciplinary / Point-of-Care Systems / Polymerase Chain Reaction / Reagents / Receptors / SARS-CoV-2 / SARS-CoV-2 - immunology / SARS-CoV-2 - isolation & purification / Science / Science (multidisciplinary) / Sensitivity and Specificity / Seroconversion / Serology / Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 / Spike Glycoprotein, Coronavirus / Spike Glycoprotein, Coronavirus - immunology / Spike protein / Test wells / Viral diseases