Quanterix’ Simoa Technology Demonstrates Advancements in COVID-19 Research through Viral Antigen Measurements in Blood and Saliva Samples

Quanterix Corporation (NASDAQ:QTRX), a company digitizing biomarker analysis to advance the science of precision health, today announced that its Simoa technology has been used in research studies to detect the SARS-CoV-2 virus in serum/plasma, dried blood microsamples (DBS) and saliva samples obtained from polymerase chain reaction (PCR)+ COVID-19 patients. Published in Nature Communications, the research study of these technologies offers further evidence that non-invasive antigen detection in blood or saliva samples, including from asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic individuals, can serve as an important complement to testing of nasal and nasopharyngeal (NP) swab samples. In addition to the benefits of detecting COVID-19 during the pre-symptomatic window when transmissibility is known to be highest, measuring viral load in blood may be particularly relevant in the context of clinical studies, as an indicator of disease severity or progression, and potentially of therapeutic efficacy.

“Despite the rapid proliferation of COVID-19 testing, the global community continues to struggle to overcome critical challenges with the accuracy, cost and availability of diagnostic tests, and with access to research tools that could help to enable a highly tailored approach to COVID-19 patient care,” said Kevin Hrusovsky, Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and President, Quanterix and Founder, Powering Precision Health (PPH). “While vaccine deployment continues at an aggressive pace, COVID-19 testing and clinical research tools will remain a global priority in the months to come. Highly sensitive measurements of viral antigen and the adaptive immune response from sample types suitable for collection at point-of-care settings and at home can help facilitate global public health efforts to curtail viral spread and accelerate therapy development clinical research programs.”

While current PCR-based testing remains the gold standard for COVID-19 detection, concerns have been raised with respect to false negatives associated with nasal and NP swabs, particularly in asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic patients. According to data published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, on day five of infection – the median time for symptom onset and the peak of viral transmission – molecular tests show a 38 percent probability of producing a false result. Moreover, PCR-based supply chains have been strained by increased testing demands, requiring the need to evaluate new testing paradigms.