Optimization of immunologic testing

In a paper now published in Clinical and Translational Immunology, a team of Canadian researchers partly funded by the CITF and led by Drs. Anne-Claude Gingras from Toronto’s Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute, Marc-André Langlois from the University of Ottawa, and Yves Durocher from the National Research Council of Canada, has developed a set of standardized, high-throughput serological assays to detect antibodies against SARS-CoV-2.

Despite the many assays available to test for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies, a gold standard has not yet been established. In an article now published in PLOS ONE, CITF Testing Working Group members Dr. Anne-Claude Gingras from the University of Toronto, and Dr. Steven Drews from Canadian Blood Services, evaluate multiple testing platforms and the concordance between test results in this CITF-funded study. P

A team of Vancouver investigators, led by Dr. Agatha Jassem of the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC) and partially funded by the CITF, assessed SARS-CoV-2 serological testing using two methods: finger pricking (dried blood spot or DBS) and traditional venipuncture (blood draw with a needle).

A group of researchers at Simon Fraser University, the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS and Providence Health care led by CITF-funded researcher Dr. Zabrina Brumme have developed a method to quantify SARS-CoV-2 virus levels in human biological specimens using a technique called droplet digital RT-PCR (RT-ddPCR).

A recent preprint, not yet peer reviewed, by CITF Testing Working Group members Dr. Anne-Claude Gingras from University of Toronto, and Dr. Steven Drews from Canadian Blood Services, compared multiple assays and concluded ‘Made-in-Canada’ ones performed well.

Many Canadian serosurveys have opted to use dried blood spot (DBS) tests as a practical means to study population-level SARS-CoV-2 prevalence.

As the pandemic continues to evolve, it has become increasingly important to systematically adapt testing capacities to detect all variants of concern.

Researchers from Public Health Ontario and the University of Toronto’s Dalla Lana School of Public Health found that there was a drop in the number of samples with detectable antibodies over time using the Abbott Architect SARS-CoV-2 IgG assay.