Why in news?
- The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)-National Institute of Virology (NIV) at Pune has developed and validated the indigenous IgG ELISA test “COVID KAVACH ELISA” for antibody detection for COVID-19.
- Most of the diagnostic material for COVID19 is imported into India from other countries. Therefore, Indian scientists are tirelessly engaged in developing indigenous diagnostics for SARS-CoV-2.
- While real time RT-PCR is the frontline test for clinical diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2, robust antibody tests are critical for surveillance to understand the proportion of population exposed to infection.
Significance and Advantages of IgG Elisa
- ICMR-National Institute of Virology (NIV) scientists have Developed and Validated – completely indigenous IgG ELISA test for antibody detection for SARS-CoV-2 with high sensitivity and specificity.
- The test will have the advantage of testing 90 samples together in a single run of 2.5 hours.
- ELISA based testing is easily possible even at district level as the ELISA kit has inactivated virus.
- There are also minimal bio-safety and bio-security requirements as compared to the real-time RT-PCR test.
- The test has an advantage of having much higher sensitivity and specificity as compared to the several rapid test kits which have recently flooded the Indian market.
- ICMR has partnered with Zydus Cadila for mass scale production of the “COVID KAVACH ELISA” test kits, and this becomes one of the most crucial examples of “Make in India” in record time.
What is IgG and How does ELISA work?
- Immunoglobulin G (IgG) belongs to immunoglobulin family, and consists of gamma (γ) heavy chain in the constant (C) region. IgG is a widely expressed serum antibody.
- This ELISA (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay) kit is an in vitro enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for the quantitative measurement of a target protein in biological samples such as serum, plasma, cell culture supernatants, urine and/or cell and tissue lysates.
- Human IgG ELISA Kit has been used to determine the total IgG antibody levels in serum samples.
