Magnetic bead-based ELISA allow inexpensive, rapid and quantitative detection of human antibodies against SARS-CoV-2

  1. Luciano Fernandes Huergo
  2. Marcelo Santos Conzentino
  3. Edileusa Cristina Marques Gerhardt
  4. Adrian Richard Schenberger Santos
  5. Fabio Oliveira Pedrosa
  6. Emanuel Maltempi Souza
  7. Meri Bordignon Nogueira
  8. Karl Forchhammer
  9. Fabiane Gomes Moraes Rego
  10. Sônia Mara Raboni
  11. Rodrigo Arantes Reis

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Abstract

Here we describe a novel immunogenic method to detect COVID-19. The method is a chromogenic magnetic bead-based ELISA which allows inexpensive and quantitative detection of human IgG or IgM antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 in serum or whole blood samples in just 12 minutes. As a proof of concept, we compared the performance of our new method to classical ELISA. Person correlation between optical densities obtained using the two methods was 0.98, the color intensity observed in the novel method correlated with antibody titers determined by classical ELISA. The novel magnetic bead-based ELISA correctly classified all 6 positive COVID-19 samples tested and showed 100% specificity as judged by the analysis of a cohort of 26 negative samples. The magnetic bead-based ELISA performed better than classic ELISA to discriminate COVID-19 positive serum with low antibody titer. The chromogenic magnetic bead-based ELISA method described here can be applied to both point of care and high throughput analysis. The method is readily adaptable to be used with other protein and peptide-based antigens.

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  1. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2020.07.26.20162255: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    Institutional Review Board StatementIRB: The Institutional Ethics Review Board of CHC/UFPR (n# 30578620.7.0000.0008) approved this study.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    No key resources detected.

    Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).

    Results from LimitationRecognizer: An explicit section about the limitations of the techniques employed in this study was not found. We encourage authors to address study limitations.

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.

    Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.

    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.

    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

    About SciScore

    SciScore is an automated tool that is designed to assist expert reviewers by finding and presenting formulaic information scattered throughout a paper in a standard, easy to digest format. SciScore checks for the presence and correctness of RRIDs (research resource identifiers), and for rigor criteria such as sex and investigator blinding. For details on the theoretical underpinning of rigor criteria and the tools shown here, including references cited, please follow this link.

  2. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2020.07.26.20162255: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    Institutional Review Board StatementThe Institutional Ethics Review Board of CHC/UFPR (n# 30578620.7.0000.0008) approved this study.Randomizationnot detected.Blindingnot detected.Power Analysisnot detected.Sex as a biological variablenot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    Antibodies
    SentencesResources
    In contrast to qRT-PCR, COVID-19 immunological tests detect antibodies that react against SARSCOV-2 antigens in human serum samples (Petherick 2020).
    SARSCOV-2
    suggested: None
    Usually, the SARS-COV-2 IgG and IgM antibody titers reaches a plateau 11-16 days after symptoms onset (Long et al. 2020a), however, some patients produce detectable antibody titers already 2-4 days after symptoms onset (Long et al. 2020b, 2020a).
    SARS-COV-2 IgG
    suggested: (Sino Biological Cat# 40588-R0004, AB_2857931)
          <div style="margin-bottom:8px">
        <div><b>IgM</b></div>
        <div>suggested: None</div>
      </div>
    </td></tr><tr><td style="min-width:100px;vertical-align:top;border-bottom:1px solid lightgray">The samples containing COVID-19 negative sera were completely blank while those from two COVID-19 patients (one mild and one severe convalescent subject) developed a blue color, which indicated the presence of IgG antibodies recognizing the SARS-CoV-2 N protein (Fig. 1).</td><td style="min-width:100px;border-bottom:1px solid lightgray">
      <div style="margin-bottom:8px">
        <div><b>SARS-CoV-2 N protein (Fig. 1</b></div>
        <div>suggested: None</div>
      </div>
    </td></tr><tr><td style="min-width:100px;vertical-align:top;border-bottom:1px solid lightgray">Discussion Here we describe a novel Magnetic bead-based chromogenic ELISA which allowed rapid and quantitative detection of antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 (Fig. 1).</td><td style="min-width:100px;border-bottom:1px solid lightgray">
      <div style="margin-bottom:8px">
        <div><b>SARS-CoV-2 (Fig. 1</b></div>
        <div>suggested: None</div>
      </div>
    </td></tr></table>

    Data from additional tools added to each annotation on a weekly basis.

    About SciScore

    SciScore is an automated tool that is designed to assist expert reviewers by finding and presenting formulaic information scattered throughout a paper in a standard, easy to digest format. SciScore is not a substitute for expert review. SciScore checks for the presence and correctness of RRIDs (research resource identifiers) in the manuscript, and detects sentences that appear to be missing RRIDs. SciScore also checks to make sure that rigor criteria are addressed by authors. It does this by detecting sentences that discuss criteria such as blinding or power analysis. SciScore does not guarantee that the rigor criteria that it detects are appropriate for the particular study. Instead it assists authors, editors, and reviewers by drawing attention to sections of the manuscript that contain or should contain various rigor criteria and key resources. For details on the results shown here, including references cited, please follow this link.

  3. Version published to 10.1101/2020.07.26.20162255v1 on medRxiv