Capgemini supports IISc for antibody testing for COVID-19

After infection with SARS-CoV-2, the human body generates virus-specific antibodies that usually prevent another infection. However, it is still unclear how quickly and how often this immunity is generated. COVID-19 antibody-based serological tests are designed to detect these virus-specific antibodies in a blood sample, in contrast to the PCR tests that are used to detect the presence of viral RNA in nasal swabs. 

An antibody or serological tests are relatively cheaper, faster, and easier and can detect whether a person was infected with the virus in the past (even if they have completely recovered from COVID-19 and have never been tested for the virus). This information is helpful in determining the prevalence of the disease in the community and designing vaccination studies. Since infected individuals are unlikely to get re-infected for at least another 8-9 months, it has been suggested that these tests could also be used as immunity passports for people to resume work. However, these tests can suffer from poor sensitivity and specificity, which can complicate the interpretation of the data.

Conventionally, native antigen proteins are used for serological testing, but these have poor performance when produced in large quantities. The team at IISc has proposed an alternative to this by using a combination of several small peptide immunogens (15-30 amino acids long) that are specific to SARS-CoV-2 that can be used to reduce false positives. The team has shortlisted a few peptides that would give higher specificity to these antibody tests as compared to the currently available ones. As these peptides can be chemically synthesized with high quality, the tests are expected to be highly reproducible with longer shelf life. They will be developed in two conventional formats––a high sensitivity ‘ELISA’ format and a rapid test version. CapGemini Corporation India is supporting this effort with funds for the development of the test.