Detecting Immunity to COVID just got a Whole Lot Easier

Enable Biosciences Reports Easier and Accurate SARS-CoV-2 Neutralizing Antibody Assay using Dried Blood Spot Samples

Excerpt from the Press Release:

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., Aug. 3, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Scientists at Enable Biosciences report a novel method to easily, rapidly and accurately detect neutralizing antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 from dried blood spots, named “SONIA” (Split-Oligonucleotide Neighboring Inhibition Assay). Published in Nature Communications, the peer-reviewed article was co-authored with an international team of scientists from the California Department of Public Health, Vitalant Research Institute, Mayo Clinic, Oregon Health & Science University, Swiss Red Cross, University of Basel (Swizerland), and Cerus Corporation. (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-31796-1)

Neutralizing antibodies are a special class of antibodies that focus on disrupting virus activity. They are critically important in determining immunity to infection, supporting vaccine development and efficacy/effectiveness testing and in quality control for blood-based therapeutics like convalescent plasma. For viral diseases like COVID, neutralizing antibodies defend against future infection and are a widely-used marker of protective immunity from vaccination or past infection. SONIA improves upon the existing gold-standard assay for neutralizing antibodies, the Plaque Reduction Neutralization Test (PRNT), by eliminating the need for dangerous live viruses. SONIA uses Enable Biosciences’ patented DNA-barcoding technology to speed up testing while achieving excellent accuracy. SONIA increases easy access to testing by being compatible with both conveniently-collected dried blood spots and regular blood samples. SONIA showed up to 97% sensitivity and 100% specificity in comparison to PRNT.

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