On this critical COVID-19 pandemic times, each social agent must give its best and show social commitment. Our best way to support the health world in this situation is with our recombinant nucleoprotein antigen for SARS-CoV (NP-CTD), the most trustable method for a fast and effective COVID-19 early detection.
We are happy to announce that Rekom Biotech will be a supplier of raw material for COVID-19 detection to the Indian company whose Covid IgG ELISA kit is approved by the Indian government.
The Spanish Centre for the Development of Industrial Technology (CDTI), with the support of the ERDF Funds, has chosen to award a grant to R&D and investment projects in order to face the health emergency declared due to COVID-19. The selected projects allow the following: increase the availability of emergency products; contribute to improve the treatment of the disease, as well as the diagnosis and clinical management of patients infected by SARS-CoV-2; contribute to the design, development and implementation of public health measures to respond effectively to the epidemic.
The total amount of projects presented reached the number of 577 and only 9 of them were selected, including Rekom Biotech's one - "PREPARATION OF BIOMARKERS FOR DETECTION OF COVID-19 AND FOR USE IN RAPID TESTS TO MEASURE SEROPREVALENCE IN THE POPULATION".
Intense time-trial is developed to obtain the best vaccine anti-COVID-19. Two organisms, one from the UK (Oxford University) and another from China (CanSino Biologics) have achieved the most promising results so far. An adenovirus vector produces both vaccines (ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 and Adenovirus Type 5 Vector respectively) (from chimp and human), a non-replicating viral vector, which avoids all type of infection risks in humans. However, it is particularly noteworthy, that not only these two studies but most of the developing ones are using the SARS-CoV-2 spike (S) glycoprotein as the leading player of this time trial. Different formats have been used to prepare/release this protein, as a purified recombinant protein, as a non-replicating viral vector (as the two more advanced attempts described above) or as a messenger RNA (mRNA)–based vaccine.
At this moment of the pandemic, a very critical point is to know if each of us is immunised and at the same time if is contagious or no. To know if people are immunised against COVID-19 is essential information to be able to undo this state of quarantine in which we are immersed. Only people who have been infected, but are already non-contagious, could return to their normal lives, allowing a progressive return to our previous routine. For this reason, it is essential to analyse the antibody load that each person presents. Therefore, the combined of an RT-PCR + a rapid serological test (for antibodies detection) is what should be imposed as a requirement to return to normality. First, a serological test could tell us if we have antibodies against the virus and only in the case we have specific antibodies in our blood, a confirmation by RT-PCR will be required to ensure that we are not infectious. A positive IgG with an already negative IgM, practically wouldn´t require confirmation by RT-PCR, but sometimes the virus or its proteins are maintained in blood for longer time. Thus, there exist different possibilities:
On 6th April, 2020 , Rekom Biotech appeared in the newspaper IDEAL, where were shown the different projects that exist in Granada (Spain) about COVID-19. One of them is the project of Rekom Biotech, which consists of designing and producing recombinant antigens focused on the spike protein of the virus, as well as a multi-epitope chimera which improve its antigenic capacity. They are being expressed in bacteria and in yeast. "This last expression system could give an antigen with better antigenic characteristics, due to its ability to mimic the native folding of the produced heterologous protein. This would lead to a better biomarker and, consequently, a faster and more accurate diagnostic. We are working on improving the antigenic and physicochemical characteristics of the antigen, so that we can improve its versatility and can be used in the different rapid in vitro diagnostic platforms on the market", said Dr. Ana Camacho, CEO of Rekom Biotech.
