The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the Coronavirus outbreak a pandemic on Wednesday, March 11, and we are very closely following the changing situation on a daily basis.

“We want to support our customers in every possible way at this difficult time, and our extensive portfolio offers many products that can help to triage patients in this challenging situation”
Maria Severina, CEO of HyTest.

MAbs for Etiological and Serological Examination

To detect and measure the levels of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies as a result of exposure to COVID-19 will provide valuable information on the development of individual immunity. COVID-19 specific IgM antibodies can be detected after 3-5 days from onset of the disease. IgG antibodies appear later, however, their titer is 4 times higher in the recovery period than that in acute phase.
While IgA has gained little attention by developers of SARS-Cov-2 antibody tests, recent publications suggest that including it in serology assays could improve the sensitivity of the tests (Yu et al., 2020; Ma et al., 2020). The data obtained in these studies indicate that IgA antibodies can be detected earlier than IgM or IgG antibodies. Also, IgA (and IgG) antibodies seem to positively correlate with the severity of the disease.
We offer the following antibodies for the development of serology assays:

Anti-IgG, in vitro, antibody
Anti-IgM, in vitro, antibody
Anti-IgA, in vitro, antibody

Major Predictors of COVID-19 Severity

We would like to remind you that testing for SARS-CoV-2 is not the only requirement in regard to managing COVID-19. Screening and monitoring for the various health issues that may arise as part of COVID-19 disease management are also needed. You can find the following markers in our portfolio that are referred as major predictors of COVID-19 severity:

Cardiac troponins
CRP
Cystatin C
D-dimer
Myoglobin
NT-proBNP
Procalcitonin
SAA
Albumin

If you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

HyTest Operations During Covid-19 Pandemic

We are able to continue our operations during the pandemic but there might be some delays in the deliveries. We do not foresee any significant disruption to our product availability or shipping schedules. However, we understand that circumstances may change quite rapidly. Therefore, we are continuously monitoring developments and we will do our best to let you know as soon as possible if the situation regarding our product supply changes.

References:
1. Giuseppe Lippi (2020) Coronavirus Disease 2019 Video. Pearl of Laboratory Medicine. Clinical Chemistry Trainee Council, AACC.
2. He XW, Lai JS, Cheng J, et al. Zhonghua Xin Xue Guan Bing Za Zhi. (2020) ;48(0):E011. doi:10.3760/cma.j.cn112148-20200228-00137
3. Lippi G, Lavie CJ, Sanchis-Gomar F. Cardiac troponin I in patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19): Evidence from a meta-analysis [published online ahead of print, 2020 Mar 10]. Prog Cardiovasc Dis. 2020;S0033-0620(20)30055-4. doi:10.1016/j.pcad.2020.03.001
4. Zhou F et al. (2020) Clinical Course and Risk Factors for Mortality of Adult Inpatients With COVID-19 in Wuhan, China: A Retrospective Cohort Study. Lancet 2020;Mar 9:[Epub ahead of print].
5. Jianlin Xiang et al. (2020) Potential biochemical markers to identify severe cases among COVID-19 patients. medRxiv 2020.03.19.20034447; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.03.19.20034447
6. Chinese Clinical Guideline for COVID-19 Pneumonia Diagnosis and Treatment (7th edition)
7. Yu, H. et al. Distinct features of SARS-CoV-2-specific IgA response in COVID-19 patients. Eur Respir J 2001526 (2020) doi:10.1183/13993003.01526-2020.
8. Ma, H. et al. COVID-19 diagnosis and study of serum SARS-CoV-2 specific IgA, IgM and IgG by chemiluminescence immunoanalysis. http://medrxiv.org/lookup/doi/10.1101/2020.04.17.20064907 (2020) doi:10.1101/2020.04.17.20064907.