Multiplexed, quantitative serological profiling of COVID-19 from blood by a point-of-care test

Heggestad, Jacob T.; Kinnamon, David S.; Olson, Lyra B.; Liu, Jason; Kelly, Garrett; Wall, Simone A.; Oshabaheebwa, Solomon; Quinn, Zachary; Fontes, Cassio M.; Joh, Daniel Y.; Hucknall, Angus M.; Pieper, Carl; Anderson, Jack G.; Naqvi, Ibtehaj A.; Chen, Lingye; Que, Loretta G.; Oguin, Thomas; Nair, Smita K.; Sullenger, Bruce A.; Woods, Christopher W.; Burke, Thomas W.; Sempowski, Gregory D.; Kraft, Bryan D.; Chilkoti, Ashutosh

Highly sensitive, specific, and point-of-care (POC) serological assays are an essential tool to manage coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Here, we report on a microfluidic POC test that can profile the antibody response against multiple severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) antigens—spike S1 (S1), nucleocapsid (N), and the receptor binding domain (RBD)—simultaneously from 60 μl of blood, plasma, or serum. We assessed the levels of antibodies in plasma samples from 31 individuals (with longitudinal sampling) with severe COVID-19, 41 healthy individuals, and 18 individuals with seasonal coronavirus infections. This POC assay achieved high sensitivity and specificity, tracked seroconversion, and showed good concordance with a live virus microneutralization assay. We can also detect a prognostic biomarker of severity, IP-10 (interferon-γ–induced protein 10), on the same chip. Because our test requires minimal user intervention and is read by a handheld detector, it can be globally deployed to combat COVID-19.