Advertisement

London, Ont., COVID-19 antibody test under review could allow for fast, inexpensive testing

Western University professor Shawn Li. via WORLDiscoveries

A team out of Western University in London, Ont., says it has developed a COVID-19 antibody test that is faster and more accurate than any currently approved in Canada.

A scientific article about the test, currently under peer review but available as a pre-print, says it can be completed in five minutes and can use blood or plasma samples to detect antibodies, “with 100 per cent specificity and 98 per cent sensitivity.”

“My test is really quite simple, it works very similar to the typing that is actually performed very routinely in clinical labs,” says Shawn Li of the Li Lab at Western’s Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry.

“It uses a very cheap interior called microbeads, could be made from the latex or any and those rubber materials, that’s very small, tiny beads not even visible to the eye. We can coat that with the same antigen that is produced by the vaccines… If we mix the microbeads with somebody’s blood and that blood contains the antibody against that protein, it’s called spike protein, and then that microbead will start to form aggregates, then that would change colour.”

Story continues below advertisement

The test is not effective on those newly infected, but researchers say it can measure antibodies days after someone has contracted the disease.

Receive the latest medical news and health information delivered to you every Sunday.

Get weekly health news

Receive the latest medical news and health information delivered to you every Sunday.
By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy.

I think we tested hundreds of samples so far. We haven’t seen false negatives… and we also have a very high sensitivity, which I think we determined to be about 98 per cent.”

Researchers say there are fewer than 20 antibody tests approved by Health Canada, but the department has allowed for an expedited review of submissions.

It is estimated that 70 per cent of the population will need to show immunity, ideally through vaccination, in order to reach widespread immunity against the coronavirus.

The team says its antibody test could help measure that figure.

Western’s WORLDiscoveries has applied for a U.S. provisional patent on the technology and is looking for partners to make the test commercially available.

“We talked with a couple of potential industrial partners to make the test but the materials of these really cost very little so I would envision probably something $10-ish if somebody can make it commercially,” Li says.

Story continues below advertisement

The development of the test “was made possible by the $20-million Ontario COVID-19 Rapid Research Fund,” WORLDiscoveries says.

Click to play video: 'Supply chain expert says countries can learn lessons from COVID-19 vaccine rollout disruptions'
Supply chain expert says countries can learn lessons from COVID-19 vaccine rollout disruptions

— with files from Global News’ Katie Dangerfield.

Sponsored content

AdChoices