The scientific community continues to investigate and try to provide answers for covid-19. In research carried out by the Hospital General of Alicante, there is now a new test for covid-19 of “extreme” sensitivity.
According to what has been revealed, this new test for covid-19 has the ability to detect antibodies, which generate immunity to the virus, that until now were invisible in patients who had already recovered from covid-19.
There is an important new test for covid-19. The discovery has now been published in Nature’s scientific journal Scientific Reports. The test for covid-19 uses innovative technology created from digital puncture, and the solution was designed by Hematology and Immunology researchers Fabián Tarín, Francisco Marco and Paula Piñero, from the Centro Hospitalar de Alicante and the Instituto de Salud y Investigación Biomédica de Alicante.
According to Fabián Tarín, hematologist, until now we had evidence that a minimum percentage of people with proven infection (about 5%), especially mild cases, asymptomatic and immunosuppressed, seemed not to develop antibodies and would probably remain unprotected against a possible reinfection
The technique, more sensitive than the usual antibody test, shows that almost half of these patients have antibodies in small amounts, invisible to other techniques, and therefore may have some protection against SARS-CoV-2
According to Efe, the researchers’ work is based on cell lines obtained by genetic engineering at CSIC laboratories and relies on a test known as flow cytometry that only needs a microliter of blood taken from the finger.
Francisco Marco, a member of the Spanish Society of Immunology, pointed out that the COVID-19 test visualizes an “essential” type of antibody (IgA), which remains for up to eight months after infection in the vast majority of patients and which constitutes the first barrier against the virus. This is because it is located in mucous membranes such as saliva or breast milk, where it is able to block germs to prevent infection.
