August 18, 2021
Keio University School of Medicine
A research group at Keio University—led by Professor Mitsuru Murata and Associate Professor Masatoshi Wakui of the Department of Laboratory Medicine, School of Medicine; Professor Emeritus Tsutomu Takeuchi and Assistant Professor Masaru Takeshita of the Division of Rheumatology, Department of Internal Medicine; and Professor Hideyuki Saya of the Division of Gene Regulation, Institute for Advanced Medical Research—has successfully developed a kit to measure neutralizing antibodies against the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) using an automated analyzer, in a joint research project with Medical & Biological Laboratories Co., Ltd. (MBL). This kit can be used on the STACIA®, a Japanese-made automated clinical testing system manufactured by LSI Medience Corporation. It can perform up to 270 tests per hour, and testing can be completed rapidly, with results available in under 19 minutes from serum sampling. Furthermore, the neutralizing antibody titers in specimens measured with this kit show a high correlation with those from infection neutralization tests using the actual novel coronavirus.
Generally, when a person is infected with a virus, the body produces protective factors called antibodies. Antibodies specifically recognize and bind to various parts of the virus, but their ability to protect against infection varies. Antibodies that can bind to sites critical for viral activity, inhibit their function, and inactivate the virus are called "neutralizing antibodies."
At the end of 2020, a kit for measuring neutralizing antibodies against the novel coronavirus, usable in standard laboratories, was developed as a result of an industry-academia collaboration between the Keio University School of Medicine, the National Institute of Infectious Diseases, JSR Corporation, and Medical & Biological Laboratories Co., Ltd. Because this kit required manual measurement, its capacity for processing a large number of specimens was limited. Now, to meet the demand for measuring neutralizing antibodies in a large number of specimens following the rollout of vaccines, we have undertaken and successfully completed the development of a measurement kit for neutralizing antibodies against the novel coronavirus that can be used on an automated clinical testing system.
Medical & Biological Laboratories Co., Ltd. is currently preparing this kit for practical use as a research reagent. It is expected that this will greatly advance the understanding of immune status after novel coronavirus infection and research into vaccine efficacy.
Please see below for the full press release.