Finger stick blood test to assess postvaccination SARS‐CoV‐2 neutralizing antibody response against variants

• Published in: Bioengineering & translational medicine Vol. 7; no. 2; pp. e10293 - n/a
• Main Authors: Lim, Sing Mei, Cheng, Hoi Lok, Jia, Huan, Kongsuphol, Patthara, D/O Shunmuganathan, Bhuvaneshwari, Chen, Ming Wei, Ng, Say Yong, Gao, Xiaohong, Turaga, Shuvan Prashant, Heussler, Sascha P., Somani, Jyoti, Sengupta, Sharmila, Tay, Dousabel M. Y., McBee, Megan E., Young, Barnaby E., MacAry, Paul A., Sikes, Hadley D., Preiser, Peter R.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hoboken, USA John Wiley & Sons, Inc 01.05.2022; Wiley
• Subjects: Antibodies; Blood; Cellulose; cellulose pulldown assay; Chromatography; COVID19; Enzymes; Glycerol; humoral response against COVID19 variants; Immunoglobulins; Infections; Mutation; Neutralizing; neutralizing antibody; Plasma; point‐of‐care test; Public health; SARS‐CoV‐2; serology test; Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2; Vaccines; point‐of‐care test; COVID19; SARS‐CoV‐2; serology test; neutralizing antibody; humoral response against COVID19 variants; cellulose pulldown assay
• ISSN: 2380-6761; 2380-6761
• DOI: 10.1002/btm2.10293

There is clinical need for a quantifiable point‐of‐care (PoC) SARS‐CoV‐2 neutralizing antibody (nAb) test that is adaptable with the pandemic's changing landscape. Here, we present a rapid and semi‐quantitative nAb test that uses finger stick or venous blood to assess the nAb response of vaccinated population against wild‐type (WT), alpha, beta, gamma, and delta variant RBDs. It captures a clinically relevant range of nAb levels, and effectively differentiates prevaccination, post first dose, and post second dose vaccination samples within 10 min. The data observed against alpha, beta, gamma, and delta variants agrees with published results evaluated in established serology tests. Finally, our test revealed a substantial reduction in nAb level for beta, gamma, and delta variants between early BNT162b2 vaccination group (within 3 months) and later vaccination group (post 3 months). This test is highly suited for PoC settings and provides an insightful nAb response in a postvaccinated population.