Vaccines: A method for quickly detecting COVID19.

1/2020 // --- In order to determine the effectiveness of immunity to Sars-Cov-2 and potential vaccines, it is necessary to determine the amount of neutralizing antibodies in the blood of vaccinated people.
traditional neutrality tests usually take two to three days and must be done in a laboratory that meets biosecurity class 3.
recently, a team of researchers from Switzerland and Germany developed a new test that takes only 18 hours and does not require high biosecurity requirements.
results were recently published in the journal Vaccine.
the test was developed by the Institute of Virology and Immunology (IVI) of the University of Bern and the Swiss Federal Food Safety and Animal Health Agency and used in collaboration with colleagues at Bochum Ruhr University (RUB).
(photo source: www.pixabay.com) To detect antibodies to Sars-Cov-2, researchers used another virus that does not spread.
they traded the virus's envelope protein for the new coronavirus's stinging protein, which mediates the virus's entry and infection. "So the virus can be identified with antibodies against Sars-Cov-2," explained lead author Toni-Luise Meister of the Department of Molecular and Medical Virology at Bochum Ruhr University.

" antibodies bind and neutralise viruses that have changed in this way, thus no longer being able to penetrate host cells.
"Since viruses prepared in this way cannot reproduce in host cells, there is no need for detailed biosafety precautions."
to determine the number of antibodies, the researchers genetically modified the virus so that infected cells could produce green fluorescent proteins and fireflies. "After a round of infections, we were able to determine how many cells showed green fluorescence," said lead author Ferdinand Zeitel Zettl of the
.
" green fluorescence is an indication of a pseudo-viral infection.
the fewer green cells researchers have found, the more antibodies that can stop the virus from neutralizing.
in addition, the luminescent signal produced by luciferase can be read using a luminescent meter, which is another way to evaluate the test.
to examine the reliability and comparability of traditional neutrality tests, the researchers applied it to blood samples from Patients with Covid-19. "The direct comparison shows a good correlation between the two test systems," explains professor Stephanie Pf?nder, the corresponding author of the
RUB Molecular and Medical Virology Department.
" the new test is much faster than the 56 hours of a traditional test, and the test results take only 18 hours.
":Another huge advantage is that this method can be done in almost all medical laboratories.
":Rapid test for the team of antibodies against Sars-Cov-2 original origins: Ferdinand Zettl, Toni Luise Meister, Tanja Vollmer, Bastian Fischer, J? Steinermann, Adalbert Krawczyk, Philip V'Kovski, Rapid Quantification of SARS-CoV-2-Neutraling Anti-Antibodies Using Propagation-Defective Vesvi Stomatitis Virus Pseudotypes. Vaccines, 2020; 8 (3): 386 DOI: 10.3390/vaccines8030386.