Immunoassays for COVID-19 Research

Characterize the Immune Response to SARS-CoV-2 Infection

With more than three decades of experience in the development and scaling of immunoassays, R&D Systems, a Bio-Techne brand, provides the tools needed for fast, accurate detection of key cytokines and antibodies triggered by viral infections such as Coronavirus 2019 (COVID 19).

Immunoassays to Measure the Cytokine Response to Viral Infection

Quantikine™ ELISAs

Built with quality at the core using in-house antibodies, proteins, and proprietary diluents, Quantikine ELISAs guarantee accuracy, precision, and lot-to-lot consistency for long term studies. Depend on the gold standard, most referenced ELISA on the market.

Choose From Over 200 Cytokine ELISA Kits

Luminex® Assays

Choose off-the-shelf and configurable high-performance panels so you can get robust, reproducible, and reliable multiplex results quickly.  Luminex Discovery Panels are also available so you can completely customize your cytokine panels for human, mouse, and rat.

Cytokine Luminex Panels

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Simple Plex™ Assays

Fully automated and easy-to-use, Simple Plex assays run on Ella and are ideal for obtaining real-time immune response data. With standardized results in just 75 minutes, Simple Plex assays are ideal for aligning data across disparate users and geographies.

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Serological Assays to Measure the Antibody Response to SARS-CoV-2

ELISpot Serology Assay

The B cell ELISpot is a very robust and highly sensitive serology test for SARS-COV-2 infection. In B cell ELISpot assays, colored spots represent antibody-secreting cells. The larger the number of spots left by B cells, the stronger the antibody-producing capacity of the immune system.

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B Cell ELISpot Serological Assays for SARS-CoV-2 Research

COVID-SeroIndex^TM

COVID-SeroIndex^TM, the Kantaro Quantitative SARS-COV-2 IgG Antibody RUO Kit, is a quantitative ELISA kit that enables objective measurement of SARS-CoV-2 IgG antibodies which is indicative of a prior COVID-19 infection. Validation studies have demonstrated a specificity of 99.8% and a sensitivity of 97.8%.

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Simple Western SARS-COV-2 Serology Test

Simple Western is a rapid orthogonal assay for SARS-COV-2 ELISAs. Use it to detect serum or plasma human IgG antibodies reactive against recombinant Nucleocapsid Protein (N), S1 receptor binding domain protein (RBD), S1 subunit full length, S2 subunit full length, and Spike (S1+S2) viral antigens within one 3-hour run.

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Learn More About the Simple Western SARS-COV-2 Assay

COVID-19 Research Webinars

COVID-19 Symposium: New Research Tools to Help the Fight against SARS-COV-2

Watch this symposium to hear from our panel of speakers as they discuss a range of topics from immune cell profiling to organoids and new reagents for COVID-19 research.

Watch the COVID-19 Symposium on Demand

Inside the COVID-SeroIndex^TM Assay Design and Performance

Understanding immune responses to Covid-19 infection and vaccine candidates is essential when profiling disease progression or vaccine efficacy. Join us as our panel of experts discuss the procedure and performance of the COVID-SeroIndex^TM, a quantitative ELISA kit enabling an objective measurement of SARS-CoV-2 IgG antibodies, that leads to the fast acquisition of the accurate and proven results required in today’s market.

Watch the COVID-SeroIndex^TM Webinar

Immune Responses to Viral Infections

The immune response to viruses has been well described (1) and includes the innate immune response as well as the adaptive immune response. The innate immune response occurs prior to the adaptive immune response and serves to slow the pathogen so that there is time for the adaptive immune response to begin. The most well-studied innate immune response proteins in the context of viral infection are type 1 interferons (IFNα and IFNβ). Type 1 interferons are stimulated by pattern recognition receptors of the toll-like receptor family. Upregulation of type 1 interferons can result in the transcription of more than 100 genes. Type 1 interferons can also activate natural killer (NK) cells, which kill infected cells and produce proinflammatory cytokines. The adaptive immune response includes the activation of T cells and the production of antibodies. Antibodies bind to the viral protein, thereby preventing cellular infection, while T cells recognize and destroy infected cells (1).

The COVID-19 Pandemic

In less than a year, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-COV-2) swept globally, infecting over 30 million people. Of those infected, more than 1 million people have been killed by coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) disease. Combating this ongoing pandemic has been difficult for several reasons. Although SARS-COV-2 has a lower mortality rate than the related SARS-COV and middle east respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-COV), it has a higher transmission rate (2-4). Furthermore, it has been estimated that ~45% of those infected with the virus are asymptomatic (5). This detail is key because the most common acute COVID-19 diagnostic tests measure viral RNA in samples from people with an active coronavirus infection. In the absence of symptoms to inspire diagnostic testing, it is apparent that the percentage of COVID-infected people may be severely underestimated. Given the possibility of such a large percentage of asymptomatic carriers, serological assays play a crucial role in the Center for Disease Control (CDC) COVID-19 serology surveillance strategy (6).

Cellular Immunity, the Progression to the Cytokine Storm, ARDS, and Death

As mentioned previously, the immune response to COVID-19 may include increased antibody production as well as cytokine release and T cell activation. Serological assays are commonly used to measure antibody responses to COVID. Ideally, such assays should be quantitative and predictive of immunity against the pathogen. Of those infected with SARS-COV-2, a significant percentage of people progress from mild symptoms to cytokine release syndrome (CRS), acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) in ~15% of the cases (7), organ failure, and death. CRS, or “cytokine storm” is an inflammatory condition characterized by the excessive secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines.  Elevated cytokine transcripts has been observed in COVID-19 patients including: IL-2, IL-7, IL-10, G-CSF, IP-10, MIP-1A, TNF-α and CXCL-8 (8). Finally, ARDS is characterized by fluid buildup in the lungs, and respiratory failure. ARDS has a mortality rate of 30-40% (9). Such a high mortality rate underscores the urgent need to accurately and precisely monitor cytokine release in COVID-19.

References

1. Meurller, S. N. and B. T. Rouse (2008) Clin. Immunol 421-431
2. Fani, M. et al. (2020) Future Virol. [Epub ahead of print]
3. Hirano, T and M Murakami (2020) Immunity. 52:731
4. Perlman, S. (2020) N Engl J Med. 382:760
5. Oran, D. P. and E. J. Topal (2020) Ann Internal Med. [Epub ahead of print]
6. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/covid-data/serology-surveillance/
7. Ragab, D. et al., (2020) Front. Immunol. 11:1
8. Huang, C. et al. (2020) Lancet. 395:497
9. Matthay, M. A. et al. (2019) Nat. Rev. Disease Primers. 5:18

COVID-19 Immunoassay Resources