Apoorva Kakkilaya
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First at-home diagnostic test kit and understanding false-negative tests
Written by: Apoorva Kakkilaya Edited by: Esther Melamed On November 17, 2020, the FDA issued its first emergency use authorization (EUA) for a self-test kit that can be administered entirely at home. The Lucira COVID-19 All-In-One Test Kit utilizes RT-LAMP technology to detect SARS-CoV-2 RNA from self-collected nasal swab samples. Swabs are placed in an…
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Characterization of a Sharp Disease-State Shift between Mild and Moderate COVID-19
Analyses of immune dysfunction in severe COVID-19 patients have revealed dysregulated immune responses including abnormal myeloid cell subsets (Schulte-Schrepping et al., 2020; Silvin et al., 2020), HLA class II downregulation on monocytes (Wilk et al., 2020), lymphopenia (Cao, 2020), and elevated levels of inflammatory cytokines (Del Valle et al., 2020). However, presentation of COVID-19 is…
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Secondary Lymphoid Organ Alterations Underlying SARS-CoV-2 Humoral Response
Longitudinal studies of antibody-mediated immunity have revealed that humoral immunity is often short-lived and appears to lack durability (Brouwer et a.l. 2020; Long et al. 2020). Thus far, much of the understanding of the immune response to COVID-19 has largely focused on peripheral blood samples from COVID-patients with diverse disease severity. Kanoko et.al investigated the…
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Developments in Antibody Tests for Convalescent Plasma
Convalescent plasma therapy recently received EUA from the FDA for the treatment of hospitalized COVID-19 patients. Although the efficacy of this treatment is still not well understood and clinical trials are ongoing (read more about the current standing of this therapy on our blog’s clinical trials page), identifying possible plasma donors who may have sufficient…
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Wastewater Testing for SARS-CoV-2 Surveillance
Wastewater-Based Epidemiology is an approach for infectious disease surveillance and can serve as an early warning system for disease outbreaks (Sims and Kasprzyk-Hordern 2020). Wide application of wastewater surveillance began in the 1990s with efforts to eradicate poliovirus. Although SARS-CoV-2 is not primarily spread through fecal-oral transmission like polio, the presence of SARS-CoV-2 RNA has…
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SARS-CoV-2 and Influenza Multiplex Testing
SARS-CoV-2 and Influenza A/B, the predominant types of flu to spread each year with its peak around December to February, are both spread via respiratory droplets. The dynamics of how a co-infection by the two viral pathogens could influence the disease course in people is unclear. A report published in Science explains that the flu…
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Rapid Antigen Test Card and asymptomatic diagnosis
In a new wave of technology development, a rapid antigen test that reads results directly from a single card received emergency use authorization from the FDA this week. Unlike other diagnostic tests, BinaxNOW COVID-19 Ag Card does not require RT-PCR technology or a machine to read. To perform the test, a nasal swab specimen is…
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Developments in Rapid Testing
As businesses, schools, and workplaces continue to reopen, rapid testing is a pressing need in order to effectively control the spread of COVID-19 and cut chains of transmission. The average wait time for test results in Texas is 4 days and a recent nation-wide survey shows that nearly 40% of Americans have to wait more…
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Antibody Testing and Seroprevalence Studies
This week, I wanted to discuss the relevance of antibody testing and seroprevalence studies in the fight against COVID-19. Serology tests can identify SARS-CoV-2 IgG or IgM antibodies in the bloodstream to determine whether patients, who may have had mild or asymptomatic illness and did not seek medical care or undergo testing, have previously been…