Scientists develop new strategy that rapidly quantifies transmissibility
of COVID-19 variants

Date:
October 13, 2021
Source:
Trinity College Dublin
Summary:
Researchers have developed a new nanomechanical technique for fast,
one- step, immune-affinity tests, which can quantify the immune
response induced by different COVID-19 variants in serum. Their
technique provides a new tool for tracking infection immunity over
time and for analysing new vaccine candidates.



FULL STORY ==========================================================================
A team of researchers has developed a new nanomechanical technique for
fast, one-step, immune-affinity tests, which can quantify the immune
response induced by different COVID-19 variants in serum. Their technique provides a new tool for tracking infection immunity over time and for
analysing new vaccine candidates.


==========================================================================
Led by Professor Martin Hegner, Principal Investigator in the Trinity
Centre for Research on Adaptive Nanostructures and Nanodevices (CRANN)
and Trinity College Dublin's School of Physics, the team's specific quantitative assay enables direct classification of variant-binding
properties for screening emerging variants.

The major advantage of the newly developed technique with respect to
(existing, commonly used) ELISA tests is that while it is equally
sensitive -- with added single amino-acid resolution -- and able to
directly detect multiple variants by in situ differential analysis,
it can also do so in a mere fraction of the time.

Professor Hegner and his co-workers focused on COVID-19 variants of
concern and their generated humoral immune response. Humoral immunity
is an antibody- mediated response that occurs when foreign material is
detected in the body.

Given that the COVID-19 virus has developed substantial mutations in
the spike protein this can undermine the efficacy of current vaccines
and monoclonal antibody therapies.

The technology developed by Professor Hegner and his team can assist
vaccine development studies in phase 1-3, with focus on comparing
protection patterns and analysing novel vaccine candidates.

The team's findings have been published in the interdisciplinary journal Nanoscale Advances,which is a high-impact, peer-reviewed journal of the
Royal Society of Chemistry.

Professor Hegner said: "Our measurements match the statistical analysis
of, for example, the transmissibility of the alpha-variant that can
otherwise only be gained by analysing the development of the disease proliferation within a population over weeks. We believe that this new technology can improve and speed up the public health guidance process.

"The direct technique greatly simplifies the preparation protocol
that in ELISA includes many washings and waiting steps, hence
reducing the amount of consumables needed and thus the relative
cost. It will therefore be well suited to use in emergency situations." ========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by Trinity_College_Dublin. Note:
Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Giulio Brunetti, Annalisa De Pastina, Martin Hegner. Quantitative
epitope
analysis reveals drastic 63% reduced immuno-affinity and 60%
enhanced transmissibility for SARS-CoV-2 variants. Nanoscale
Advances, 2021; DOI: 10.1039/D1NA00554E ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/10/211013114055.htm

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