Dr. Farkhanda Ghafoor (SIHS), Dr. Shaper Mirza (LUMS) and Dr. Sania Shuja (SIHS)
WHO on 20th Jan 2020 declared SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 outbreak as a public health emergency and recognized it as a pandemic on 11 March 2020. Till 22nd July 2020 globally the reported cases in are 269, 016 with 5709 fatalities and 208,830 recoveries.
Antibodies that facilitate clearance of viruses are termed as neutralizing antibodies and are considered a critical immune component against viruses. Differences in disease patho-physiology could result from differences in the titer and/or functionality of those antibodies. The titer and efficacy of antibodies requires serological assays. Internationally available assays are expensive, therefore there is a critical need for the development of local facility for sensitive and specific SARS-CoA-2/COVID-19 IgM/IgG ELISA to determine acute & chronic infection and follow up of known infected cases for antibody levels.
The project will focus on development of sensitive and specific ELISA reagents for IgG antibody against Nucleocaspid and Spike proteins to SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19, followed by Envelope and Membrane proteins, to explore the immunity against SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 in this geographical part of the world. It may also help to identify Individuals with high antibody titer who may act as potential donors for convalescent plasma for treatment of critically ill patients as part of ongoing research clinical trials