1. COVID-19 serological survey using micro blood sampling
- Author
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Masashi Narita, Theodore Robb, Melissa M. Matthews, Keon Young Kim, Tomoari Mori, Christian Butcher, Siang Sheng Jheng, Satoshi Shibata, Jaekyung Hyun, Tae Gyun Kim, Matthias Wolf, Mary Collins, and Noriko Shibata
- Subjects
medicine.medical_specialty ,Time Factors ,Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) ,Epidemiology ,Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) ,Science ,Positive control ,Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay ,Cross Reactions ,Antibodies, Viral ,Sensitivity and Specificity ,Article ,COVID-19 Serological Testing ,Serology ,Phlebotomy ,Seroepidemiologic Studies ,Cryoelectron microscopy ,Internal medicine ,Humans ,Sample tracking ,Medicine ,Seroprevalence ,Finger prick ,Blood Specimen Collection ,Multidisciplinary ,Occupational health ,business.industry ,Antibody titer ,Reproducibility of Results ,COVID-19 ,Self-Testing ,Viral infection ,Spike Glycoprotein, Coronavirus ,Cohort ,Coronavirus Infections ,business ,Blood sampling - Abstract
During August 2020, we carried out a serological survey among students and employees at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST), Japan, testing for the presence of antibodies against SARS-CoV-2, the causative agent of COVID-19. We used a FDA-authorized 2-step ELISA protocol (1, 2) in combination with at-home self-collection of blood samples using a custom low-cost finger prick-based capillary blood collection kit. Although our survey did not find any COVID-19 seropositive individuals among the OIST cohort, it reliably detected all positive control samples obtained from a local hospital and excluded all negatives controls. We found that high serum antibody titers can persist for at least up to 6.5 months post infection. Among our controls, we found strong cross-reactivity of antibodies in samples from a serum pool from two MERS patients in the anti-SARS-CoV-2-S ELISA. Here we show that a centralized ELISA in combination with patient-based capillary blood collection using as little as one drop of blood can reliably assess the seroprevalence among communities. Anonymous sample tracking and an integrated website created a stream-lined procedure. Major parts of the workflow were automated on a liquid handler, demonstrating scalability. We anticipate this concept to serve as a prototype for reliable serological testing among larger populations.
- Published
- 2021