Pune lab develops the Covid-19 kit that can analyze 90 samples in 2.5 hours

NEW DELHI: Scientists at the National Virology Institute (NIV) of the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) in Pune have developed a COVID-19 antibody kit that can analyze 90 samples together in 2.5 hours. The technology has already been transferred to a healthcare company called Zydus for mass production and will be publicly named Covid Kavach ELISA.

For those who don’t know, ELISA stands for Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay. It is a commonly used procedure to measure antibodies, antigens or other compounds such as proteins and glycoproteins in bio samples.

To create the antibody test kit, the scientists first had to isolate the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19 from patients.

After isolating the virus, scientists have developed the ELISA for the detection of antibodies to COVID-19. The test was validated at two sites in Mumbai and is said to have high sensitivity and specificity.

Although real-time RT-PCR is the primary test for the diagnosis of COVID-19, antibody tests are critical to understanding the proportion of the population exposed to infection.

“ELISA-based tests are easily possible even at the district level since the ELISA kit has inactivated the virus. There are also minimum biosecurity and biosecurity requirements compared to real-time RT-PCR testing. The test has the advantage of having much higher sensitivity and specificity compared to the various rapid test kits that have recently flooded the Indian market, “the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said in a press release.

ICMR has partnered with Zydus Cadila for the large-scale production of ELISA test kits. The test kit is called “Covid Kavach Elisa”.