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Two Spanish researchers, an immunologist and an allergist from the University Hospital of the Canary Islands, have created a test capable of

guessing the state of cellular immunity

and, therefore, quickly reveals whether or not a new booster dose of the vaccine against COVID-19.

The test can be done right away and could help

lower costs for the National Health System

(SNS).

This is 'CoviDCELL', a test that has been reformulated by the specialist in Immunology Yvelise Barrios, together with the expert in Allergology Víctor Matheu, and which is a world first in this field.

To date, they have not managed, despite attempts, to market it, although their results have seen the light of day in several scientific publications.

"It is a very interesting test to do in our population, in patients with immunological diseases, or in cancer patients, for example. And now we know that there are

several pharmaceutical companies that are developing it

and we assume that they will arrive more widely at the end of this year or at the beginning of next year", reveals this doctor in an interview with Infosalus.

He indicates that 'CoviDCELL' is an adaptation of a classic Immunology test (delayed hypersensitivity reaction), a skin test that has been carried out for years in diseases such as tuberculosis, or in the 90s it was widely used with HIV patients , whose T cells are attacked by the virus over time.

In this case, it consists of

injecting a solution with a piece of the famous

SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, one of the main proteins of the virus, into the skin of the patient's forearm, to study the skin reaction that occurs in the patient, and that will be the one that reveals whether or not we have cellular immunity against this pathogen;

that is, whether or not we ultimately have to get vaccinated.

Specifically, our immune system has two types of response: humoral, the one that produces specific antibodies for each pathogen, and that can be measured simply with a serological test;

and on the other hand, cellular immunity, more durable, and made up of the famous T lymphocytes capable of remembering whether or not they have previously faced a pathogen, and which until now could only be measured in the laboratory, in more complex processes.

"If our body has previously been infected by the virus, or we have passed the infection, or we have been vaccinated, we will have specific T cells that will recognize it and go to the area where we have injected this synthetic protein under the skin. If so, it will occur

a red reaction that will tell us that our body has those T cells

, which remember having faced the virus, and therefore we are still protected against this disease", explains the immunologist.

In his opinion, the applications offered by 'CoviDCELL' are very interesting because, although it only provides an affirmative or negative answer, it allows in an easy way, without the need for blood draws or sophisticated laboratories, to know and interpret in many people if we have this cellular immune response.

"Antibodies, the other branch of the specific immune response that we can also measure, decline over time, after several months they decrease, and this test in our hands seems more stable.

It is 'in vivo', it is measured the T lymphocyte in our own body"

, he explains.

In this case, to measure the cellular response, as Barrios continues, it is necessary to wait between 12 and 48 hours after the skin injection in the person.

"Patients who have undergone this test are not made to return to the laboratory, rather they send us a photo of the reaction that has been created via mobile, and you can see if the patient has cellular immunity or not," says the immunologist.

It would lower costs to the SNS

Moreover, it highlights that at this point in the pandemic it can be useful to answer a lot of questions about the immunogenicity of vaccines, because the other tests that are done in vitro and that require a blood draw are more expensive, they need material highly specialized, as well as personnel, and laboratories.

"This test is

easier and simpler

and allows us to demonstrate whether or not you need these extra doses over time, while at the same time we can answer questions about how long the immunogenicity of the vaccines lasts, or how many doses we are going to need" , clarifies.

Moreover, this specialist in Immunology at the University Hospital of the Canary Islands maintains that it

is especially interesting in transplant patients

, and in fact mentions that the third publication they have made on the subject has focused on the use of this test with this group: " It is clear that if we only take into account the immunity measured by antibodies, these patients are underestimated, because they may have a robust immunity that can be seen with this test."

"Only seeing a part of immunity, which are the antibodies, leaves us with uncertainties that we really cannot fill in on many occasions because there are no cheap and easy tests to do, and we propose this as an initial method, which does not mean that they cannot be do the others, which give deeper information. They are complementary things and the usefulness of 'CoviDCELL' is the large population that we can reach," he adds.

Although its application should be carried out by nurses, as it is an intradermal administration, the doctor believes that over time

the use of these devices will surely evolve more automatically.

"It is clear that we personally believe that the strategy should go towards individualizing the administration of COVID-19 vaccines. (*) In the general population, it would optimize resources because massively vaccinating everyone entails a budgetary commitment that can be allocated to others areas, and at the beginning of the pandemic it did make sense to vaccinate massively, and now it doesn't," says this expert.

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