A rapid test that measures the body’s active immune T-cell defenses against SARS-CoV-2 was developed by a research team that includes Duke-NUS researchers.
The new method, which requires less than 1 ml of blood, is easy to perform, making it adaptable for mass testing of patient samples noted the researchers in their paper pubished in Nature.
Detecting SARS-CoV-2-specific T-cell activation is the test’s key innovation over its conventional counterparts which measure other indicators of the body’s immune response during a viral infection, such as the presence of viral particles or virus-specific antibodies.
“T cells protect from disease,” said study co-author Professor Antonio Bertoletti with Duke-NUS’ Emerging Infectious Disease Programme. They “recognise the infected cells ... and destroy them. T cells are also important for the efficient maturation of B cells, [which] also help to produce antibodies,” he said in a response to Channel NewsAsia.
Because it detects T-cell responses, the test provides an alternative for studying the SARS-CoV-2 immunity of immunocompromised individuals who do not produce as many antibodies compared with healthy individuals. The results could also determine if vaccinated individuals remain protected against future COVID-19 infections.
Besides that, this innovation has another advantage: while it was formulated to detect the degree of cellular immunity to SARS-CoV-2, the same technology can be applied to measure the body’s T-cell responses to other viral infections. It is “an urgently needed complement to the currently available tests,” the authors wrote, adding that the test could help inform vaccination strategies based on the levels of immune protection in target populations.