I am totally perplexed why an antibody test has not been developed yet for this corona virus just like for HIV. In 1977 I discovered a new syncytial virus of the Retroviridae family,isolated it, inoculated rabbits with it to have an antiserum with which to conduct a survey over 150 sera for positives. I tagged These antibodies with the fluorescent molecule FITC to visualize the virus in the nuclei of infected cells.
Now the technology that exists makes it so much easier. We have elucidated and reproduce the protein that sticks to cell receptors in our respiratory tract to penetrate and infect them. This is the antigenic structure to which we can make antibodies to block the virus. It can be used for testing for antibodies in millions of people and even perhaps as a vaccination agent. I am at a lost to understand why this is not happening.
Dear Stanley Laham , according to the following publication an immunoassay kit has been already been developed to detect IgM and IgG antibodies in human blood. The authors claim for sensitivity over 88% from 397 PCR confirmed and 128 negative patients.
Ref: Article Development and Clinical Application of A Rapid IgM-IgG Comb...
Agree with above. Ray biotech kit and a few others have been submitted to the FDA for approval. Some kits were granted permission for use under the FDA Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) program. Require a confirmation test such as qPCR.
It seems an IgM precipitation has kit finally been approved. Exact same principle I developed to test sera for my virus.The expansive reverse transcriptase followed by polymerase chain reaction test was inadequate and gave quite a few false negatives.
https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-02-15/China-develops-COVID-19-detection-kit-that-delivers-results-in-15-min--O6aPGKuzGo/index.html
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