A Microflow Cytometry-Based Agglutination Immunoassay for Point-of-Care Quantitative Detection of SARS-CoV-2 IgM and IgG

Jianxi Qu; Mathieu Chenier; Yushan Zhang; Chang-Qing Xu

doi:10.3390/mi12040433

A Microflow Cytometry-Based Agglutination Immunoassay for Point-of-Care Quantitative Detection of SARS-CoV-2 IgM and IgG

Micromachines (Basel). 2021 Apr 14;12(4):433. doi: 10.3390/mi12040433.

Authors

Jianxi Qu¹, Mathieu Chenier², Yushan Zhang¹, Chang-Qing Xu^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ School of Biomedical Engineering, McMaster University, 1280 Main Street West, Hamilton, ON L8S 4L8, Canada.
² Department of Engineering Physics, McMaster University, 1280 Main Street West, Hamilton, ON L8S 4L8, Canada.

Abstract

A rapid, sensitive and simple microflow cytometry-based agglutination immunoassay (MCIA) was developed for point-of-care (POC) quantitative detection of SARS-CoV-2 IgM and IgG antibodies. The antibody concentration was determined by using the transit time of beads aggregates. A linear relationship was established between the average transit time and the concentration of SARS-CoV-2 IgM and IgG, respectively. The limit of detection (LOD) of SARS-CoV-2 IgM and IgG by the MCIA measurement are 0.06 mg/L and 0.10 mg/L, respectively. The 10 µL sample consumption, 30 min assay time and the compact setup make this technique suitable for POC quantitative detection of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies.

Keywords: SARS-CoV-2 IgG; SARS-CoV-2 IgM; agglutination immunoassay; microflow cytometry; point-of-care.

Grants and funding

IT18800/Mitacs