Australian researchers have developed a test which can provide highly accurate readings for COVID-19 from a finger prick of blood within 20 minutes, Trend reports citing Xinhua.
The point-of-care (POC) test, created by scientists from the Burnet Institute and the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, is the first of its kind in the world, according to the research unveiled on Wednesday.
While many POC tests can measure the overall level of antibody to SARS-CoV-2 and use this to estimate neutralizing antibodies (NAb), the researchers say their test is the only one to measure NAb activity, which correlates with immune protection for COVID-19.
Writing about their breakthrough in the journal EBioMedicine, the scientists note the versatile test can be adapted to provide information about whether a person has protective antibodies against a particular disease variant, such as Omicron.
The rise of the Omicron variant, which early studies suggest may be up to 40 times less sensitive to patient NAb than Delta, means that some people will suddenly go from having adequate protective NAb, to not having enough.
Burnet Institute deputy director Associate Professor David Anderson said the POC test could therefore be useful to quickly indicate when a vaccine booster was required.
"One of the key elements of the test is that it can work with finger-prick whole blood, which is essential if it is really going to be used at point-of-care," Anderson said.
"Another advantage is we have demonstrated that we can readily substitute different variants into the test. While we have not yet tested Omicron, this will be simple enough to incorporate in our test in place of the original strain or variants we have tested."