| Serological tests play an important role in the surveillance and management of epidemics or pandemics, as well as in acquired immunity studies. Currently, COVID-19 serology is performed by well-established immunoassay techniques, which provide high sensitivities, but require specialized laboratories with trained personnel and processing times of 3 to 48 hours. | |
| A much faster and easier method is the lateral flow assay— such as the rapid diagnostic tests sold in pharmacies. However, the latter are not fully reliable, as they exhibit only moderate sensitivity and specificity. | |
| A team of researchers led by Prof. Laura M. Lechuga, CSIC Research Professor and head of the NanoBiosensors and Bioanalytical Applications Group at the Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2), has developed and extensively validated a novel serological nano-biosensor that provides a rapid (less than 15 minutes) identification and quantification of SARS-COV-2 antibodies in blood serum, without the need for sample pre-treatment and lengthy processing. It employs an optical sensing device based on a plasmonic technique that Prof. Lechuga’s group has been consolidating for years and has implemented for the diagnostics of diverse diseases and conditions –such as detection of cancer biomarkers, gluten ingestion or antibiotic allergy. |
| Extensive testing on clinical samples, provided by the Vall d’Hebron University Hospital and the Hospital Clínic of Barcelona–IDIBAPS during the first months of COVID-19 pandemic, was performed to prove the efficacy and reliability of this biosensor technology. In particular, 120 samples of serum were used, of which 100 from confirmed COVID-19 positive patients and 20 negative ones (collected prior to the outbreak of the pandemic). Comparative analyses with standard techniques and commercial lateral flow assays showed that this plasmonic biosensor technology outperforms well-established diagnostic methods, providing excellent sensitivity (99%) and specificity (100%). | |
| Such remarkable accuracy and the short operation times (the result is available in less than 15 minutes) make of this new biosensor an outstanding tool for rapid and reliable serological tests. Fast and quantitative serology is crucial for monitoring the evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic, managing patients’ hospitalization and placement in intensive care units and assessing the immunological status of individuals during vaccination campaigns and in the presence of emerging variants of the virus. | |
| Since the read-out device is compact and the procedure can be automatized, this technology has also potential for point-of-care applications and could be introduced in doctors’ practices and pharmacies. In addition, the same technique can be employed for the detection of various substances in body fluids –such as gluten peptides, early cancer biomarkers, anticoagulant drugs, or antibiotic allergy antibodies — thus, for the diagnostics and monitoring of many diseases. | |
| The readiness level of this technique is already very high and their developers are committed to achieve a fast technology transfer to industry, in order to introduce this new biosensor device both in the clinical environment and in decentralised settings. Watch this animation illustrating how a portable read-out device with disposal cartridges would work. | |
| The results of this study, carried out in the framework of the EU funded project CoNVaT, have been published in Analytical Chemistry (“Label-Free Plasmonic Biosensor for Rapid, Quantitative, and Highly Sensitive COVID-19 Serology: Implementation and Clinical Validation”). The research has been developed by Prof Lechuga’s group in collaboration with the Intensive Care and Clinical Microbiology Departments of the Vall d’Hebron University Hospital (Barcelona, Spain), the Department of Pneumology of the Hospital Clínic of Barcelona-IDIBAPS, and the Emerging Virus Unit of Aix-Marseille University (France). Senior researchers Dr Maria Soler and Dr M. Carmen Estévez are the corresponding authors, while PhD student Olalla Calvo-Lozano is the first author, having performed the optimization and validation of the system. |
News
Back and shoulder surgery is often worse than useless
Millions of operations should be scrapped SIX IN TEN Britons have surgery at some point. So do lots of Americans, at a cost of perhaps $500bn a year, a third of all spending on [...]
Cocaine plays with mind, hijacks brain circuit, drives increasingly rigid and repetitive behavior
Researchers have found that cocaine hijacks brain circuit, which to drive increasingly rigid and repetitive behavior. The brain circuit that normally participates in selecting natural mouth and face movements, but which becomes disproportionately engaged [...]
Injectable nanodevices could provide effective treatment for drug-resistant glioblastoma
The brain cancer glioblastoma is one of the most aggressive and treatment-resistant cancers known to medicine, carrying a median survival of just 12-15 months, even with the best available care. Now, researchers at the [...]
New Treatment Cuts “Bad” Cholesterol in Half for a Full Year
A single infusion of an experimental CRISPR-Cas9 therapy was reported to safely lower LDL cholesterol by 52.5% and triglycerides by 47.8%, as measured 12 months after treatment. What if one infusion could keep cholesterol [...]
Too Much RNA Can Drain a Cell’s Energy, Scientists Discover
A virus may cripple a cell’s power supply simply by producing too much of a molecule the cell needs to survive. New research from the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences [...]
West African scientists warn of weakening health systems and urge stronger outbreak detection
LOME, Togo (AP) — West African laboratory scientists called on governments Friday to strengthen capacity to detect disease outbreaks to avoid another major outbreak, saying health systems across the region are becoming weaker. Participants [...]
A Little-Known Protein Could Point to a New Way To Treat Alzheimer’s
A study suggests that increasing SORLA protein levels could help treat Alzheimer’s disease and other disorders involving tau protein. Increasing SORLA, a protein with a protective role in the brain, helped mice withstand damage [...]
Cancer’s Hidden Antioxidant Shield Helps It Escape the Immune System
Blocking an antioxidant protein that tumors use to suppress immune attacks improved cancer immunotherapy responses in mice. Cancer cells can release antioxidants that interfere with the immune cells trying to kill them. Researchers have [...]
Scientists Find a Berry Compound That Helps Muscle Cells Burn Fat
Pterostilbene, a compound found naturally in some foods, affects how skeletal muscles process fats by stabilizing a protein called PPARδ and increasing its signaling activity. Pterostilbene, a natural compound found in blueberries, grapes, and [...]
Two Hidden Forces Help Build the Human Brain Before Birth
Scientists have uncovered two surprising forces that help guide how the human brain forms before birth. Before birth, the human brain is shaped in large part by an unusual class of stem cells known [...]
Researchers Uncover a Hidden Trigger Behind Chronic Inflammation
The findings offer new insights that could help guide the development of future therapies. A protein called human resistin may help flip on one of the immune system’s most powerful inflammatory switches. Researchers at [...]
Scientists Have Uncovered Previously Hidden Microbial Activity on Human Skin
The most abundant microbes on your skin may not be the ones doing most of the work. Human skin supports vast communities of bacteria, fungi, and viruses that can influence its protective barrier, immune [...]
Brazilian Tree Compounds Fight COVID-19 on Multiple Fronts
Scientists found compounds in a Brazilian tree that hit SARS-CoV-2 on multiple fronts, revealing a promising new lead in the search for COVID-19 treatments. Researchers have found that galloylquinic acids extracted from the leaves [...]
Cutting Two Amino Acids Slowed Prostate Cancer in Mice
A newly identified link between amino acid metabolism and cholesterol production may help prostate tumors adapt to hormone therapy. Prostate cancer can find ways around treatments designed to deprive tumors of the hormones they [...]
Largest-Ever Physics Survey Raises New Doubts About Our Model of the Universe
Physicists around the world remain deeply divided on key mysteries of the universe, from dark matter to quantum gravity. The standard cosmological model failed to gain majority support, and no leading theory dominated the [...]
Scientists Just Overturned a 100-Year-Old Belief About Bacteria in the Lungs
New findings raise questions about the role of microbes living in the lungs. More than 35 trillion bacteria live throughout the human body, forming microbiomes in the gut, mouth, lungs, skin, and urogenital tract. [...]
