Luciano F. Huergo
Immunological assays are important tools to detect previous infections by pathological agents such as SARS-CoV-2. Furthermore, immunological assays are important to track humoral response to vaccination. Here we describe a simple, inexpensive, high throughput and ultrafast nickel magnetic bead-based immunoassay which allows rapid, inexpensive and scalable detection of human antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 using serum or blood. We show that the method is readily adaptable to use different 6xHis tagged SARS-CoV-2 antigens and operate with performances superior to classic ELISA though requiring only a fraction of consumables, instrumentation, time to deliver results and volume of sample. The results can be visually interpreted without compromising accuracy as demonstrated by validation at a point of care unit. The magnetic bead ELISA can be implemented in high throughput formats to fast track COVID-19 cases and humoral response to SARS-CoV-2 vaccines.
