Breakthrough blood test detects positive COVID-19 result in 20 minutes


Date:
July 17, 2020
Source:
Monash University
Summary:
Researchers report a new method that detects positive COVID-19
cases using blood samples in about 20 minutes, and identifies
whether someone has contracted the virus.



FULL STORY ==========================================================================
New research by Monash University in Australia has been able to detect
positive COVID-19 cases using blood samples in about 20 minutes, and
identify whether someone has contracted the virus.


==========================================================================
In a discovery that could advance the worldwide effort to limit the
community spread of COVID-19 through robust contact tracing, researchers
were able to identify recent COVID-19 cases using 25 microlitres of
plasma from blood samples.

The research team, led by BioPRIA and Monash University's Chemical
Engineering Department, including researchers from the ARC Centre
of Excellence in Convergent BioNano Science and Technology (CBNS),
developed a simple agglutination assay -- an analysis to determine the
presence and amount of a substance in blood -- to detect the presence
of antibodies raised in response to the SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Positive COVID-19 cases caused an agglutination or a clustering of red
blood cells, which was easily identifiable to the naked eye. Researchers
were able to retrieve positive or negative readings in about 20 minutes.

While the current swab / PCR tests are used to identify people who are currently positive with COVID-19, the agglutination assay can determine
whether someone had been recently infected once the infection is resolved
-- and could potentially be used to detect antibodies raised in response
to vaccination to aid clinical trials.

Using a simple lab setup, this discovery could see medical practitioners
across the world testing up to 200 blood samples an hour. At some
hospitals with high- grade diagnostic machines, more than 700 blood
samples could be tested hourly - - about 16,800 each day.



========================================================================== Study findings could help high-risk countries with population screening,
case identification, contact tracing, confirming vaccine efficacy during clinical trials, and vaccine distribution.

This world-first research was published July 18, 2020, in the journal
ACS Sensors.

A patent for the innovation has been filed and researchers are seeking commercial and government support to upscale production.

Dr Simon Corrie, Professor Gil Garnier and Professor Mark Banaszak Holl (BioPRIA and Chemical Engineering, Monash University), and Associate
Professor Timothy Scott (BioPRIA, Chemical Engineering and Materials
Science and Engineering, Monash University) led the study, with initial
funding provided by the Chemical Engineering Department and the Monash
Centre to Impact Anti- microbial Resistance.

Dr Corrie, Senior Lecturer in Chemical Engineering at Monash University
and Chief Investigator in the CBNS, said the findings were exciting
for governments and health care teams across the world in the race to
stop the spread of COVID- 19. He said this practice has the potential
to become upscaled immediately for serological testing.



========================================================================== "Detection of antibodies in patient plasma or serum involves pipetting
a mixture of reagent red blood cells (RRBCs) and antibody-containing serum/plasma onto a gel card containing separation media, incubating the
card for 5-15 minutes, and using a centrifuge to separate agglutinated
cells from free cells," Dr Corrie said.

"This simple assay, based on commonly used blood typing infrastructure
and already manufactured at scale, can be rolled out rapidly across
Australia and beyond. This test can be used in any lab that has blood
typing infrastructure, which is extremely common across the world."
Researchers collaborated with clinicians at Monash Health to collect
blood samples from people recently infected with COVID-19, as well as
samples from healthy individuals sourced before the pandemic emerged.

Tests on 10 clinical blood samples involved incubating patient plasma
or serum with red blood cells previously coated with short peptides representing pieces of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

If the patient sample contained antibodies against SARS-CoV-2, these
antibodies would bind to peptides and result in aggregation of the red
blood cells.

Researchers then used gel cards to separate aggregated cells from
free cells, in order to see a line of aggregated cells indicating a
positive response. In negative samples, no aggregates in the gel cards
were observed.

"We found that by producing bioconjugates of anti-D-IgG and peptides from
SARS- CoV-2 spike protein, and immobilising these to RRBCs, selective agglutination in gel cards was observed in the plasma collected from
patients recently infected with SARS-CoV-2 in comparison to healthy plasma
and negative controls," Professor Gil Garnier, Director of BioPRIA, said.

"Importantly, negative control reactions involving either
SARS-CoV-2-negative samples, or RRBCs and SARS-CoV-2-positive samples
without bioconjugates, all revealed no agglutination behaviour."
Professor Banaszak Holl, Head of Chemical Engineering at Monash
University, commended the work of talented PhD students in BioPRIA and
Chemical Engineering who paused their projects to help deliver this game changing COVID-19 test.

"This simple, rapid, and easily scalable approach has immediate
application in SARS-CoV-2 serological testing, and is a useful platform
for assay development beyond the COVID-19 pandemic. We are indebted
to the work of our PhD students in bringing this to life," Professor
Banaszak Holl said.

"Funding is required in order to perform full clinical evaluation
across many samples and sites. With commercial support, we can begin to manufacture and roll out this assay to the communities that need it. This
can take as little as six months depending on the support we receive."
COVID-19 has caused a worldwide viral pandemic, contributing to nearly
600,000 deaths and more than 13.9 million cases reported internationally (figures dated 17 July 2020).


========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by Monash_University. Note: Content
may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Related Multimedia:
* YouTube_video:_Rapid_Gel_Card_Test_for_COVID-19_Diagnostics ========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Diana Alves, Rodrigo Curvello, Edward Henderson, Vidhishri
Kesarwani,
Julia A. Walker, Samuel C. Leguizamon, Heather McLiesh, Vikram Singh
Raghuwanshi, Hajar Samadian, Erica M. Wood, Zoe K. McQuilten, Maryza
Graham, Megan Wieringa, Tony M. Korman, Timothy F. Scott, Mark M.

Banaszak Holl, Gil Garnier, Simon R. Corrie. Rapid Gel Card
Agglutination Assays for Serological Analysis Following SARS-CoV-2
Infection in Humans.

ACS Sensors, 2020; DOI: 10.1021/acssensors.0c01050 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/07/200717101037.htm

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