Wastewater as a backdoor to serology?
Agan, M. L.; Taylor, W. R.; Willis, W. A.; Lair, H.; Murphy, A.; Marinelli, A.; Young, I.; New, G. D.; Juel, M. A. I.; Dornburg, A.; Munir, M.; Schlueter, J.; Gibas, C. J.
Show abstract
Wastewater surveillance is a powerful tool for monitoring the prevalence of infectious disease. Systems for wastewater monitoring were put in place throughout the world during the COVID-19 pandemic. These systems use viral RNA copies as the basis of estimates of COVID-19 cases in the sewershed area, thereby providing data critical for public health responses. However, the potential to measure other biomarkers in wastewater during outbreaks has not been fully explored. Here we report a novel approach for detecting specific human antibodies from wastewater. We measured the abundance of anti-SARS-CoV-2 spike IgG and IgA from fresh samples of community wastewater and from archived frozen samples dating from 2020-22. The assay described can be performed with readily available reagents, at a moderate per-sample cost. Our findings demonstrate the feasibility of noninvasive serological surveillance via wastewater, enabling a new approach to immunity-based monitoring of populations.
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