UK Biobank Coronavirus self test antibody study

[richardp]

For those who participate in the UK Biobank scheme ( about 500,000 of us ), you will be receiving an invitation to participate in a finger prick test to establish whether you have antibodies to the virus. If you do, there might be a follow up for a 2nd test. Seems well worthwhile to participate.

[Jm954 Administrator]

That's great, I'll do that!

Do you know if they will tell us the result?Jackie

[richardp in reply to Jm954]

The good thing is that you will know your result straight away :

"If you agree to help, we will send you a finger-prick home-testing kit to find out if you have antibodies to the coronavirus. Taking the test is simple and quick for you to do:

Use the finger-prick device to produce a small drop of blood;

Put a drop of blood on the test stick and add 2 drops of the liquid provided;

Your results will be shown on the test stick in about 20 minutes;

Log into the UK Biobank participant website to let us know your result and answer a few simple questions."

[Ptcad]

I’ve done this - negative sadly for me as W&w CLL and first dose of AZ.

[richardp in reply to Ptcad]

Sorry to hear that. I suspect mine will be the same ( like you I am W & W CLL ) but will have had two doses of AZ so will let you know result.

[Ptcad in reply to richardp]

Thank you - please do and good luck!

[bennevisplace in reply to Ptcad]

Negative result just indicates you have not had a Covid infection. See my reply to OP below.

[Creativelady60]

I’ve done this - weak positive. I’m WW. Not had vaccine as I’m on the Provent trial . Unblinded was lucky to have been given the monoclonal antibodies. Has given me some reassurance although I will continue to be cautious

[bennevisplace]

Just to be clear, the purpose of this UK Biobank study is to measure Covid seroprevalence in the UK. As they are interested to know only whether or not a volunteer's blood contains antibodies to a Covid infection, they would test for antibodies to nucleocapsid protein. It's not testing the volunteer's response to vaccine, methinks.

[Ptcad in reply to bennevisplace]

So just to be clear - antibodies generated by the vaccination are directed at which bit of the virus?

[bennevisplace in reply to Ptcad]

The spike protein.

[Ptcad in reply to bennevisplace]

Thank you

[richardp in reply to bennevisplace]

Yes, you are correct.

From the FAQ provided by UK Biobank :

1. If your test result is negative, this means the test has not found antibodies to the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus in your blood. There is still a lot to learn about this virus and it should be noted that if antibodies are not present in your blood, it does not necessarily mean that you have not been infected with the virus. You should continue to follow current government legislation and guidance.

2. If you test positive, you may be invited to take part in a further study which will allow us to see if the antibodies are a result of your vaccination or from a previous natural infection. This study would involve you taking a slightly larger blood sample that would be sent to a laboratory for testing.

[bennevisplace in reply to richardp]

Thanks for that. From which it seems the initial test is for total antibodies: nucleocapsid and spike both.

Giving everyone who tests positive a second test is going to be a big task, considering more than a quarter of the adult population has been vaccinated. Maybe I'm missing something, but to me it makes no sense to do it twice.

[richardp in reply to bennevisplace]

I might be missing your point but UK Biobank are not including all 500,000 participants in the exercise but certainly have the capability based on previous major exercises they have undertaken to carry out major reviews. They did explain in their FAQ -See 2 from my earlier post why they will give some of those testing positive a second test

[bennevisplace in reply to richardp]

Right. My point is IF their only objective is to establish which subjects have developed antibodies to infection and which have not, they can do it with one test: the nucleocapsid.

I believe this is the current study UK Biobank is running ukbiobank.ac.uk/explore-you...

From which it SEEMS that they remain interested only in who has been infected with Covid and how their antibodies vary over time. And yet, the test kit they are sending out is the AbC-19 Rapid Neutralising Antibody Test, produced by Abingdon Health, which detects antibodies to the SPIKE protein. A positive response could result from infection or vaccination or both, so they need to do a second test to determine which.

IMO there are two feasible explanations for this testing strategy. Either a suitable home test kit for nucleocapsid antibodies is not available, or the study objectives have expanded to investigate post vaccination (spike) antibodies. A third possibility is that the folks at UK Biobank know not what they are doing, but I don't think that's feasible.

[annmcgowan in reply to bennevisplace]

Hi thank you Bennevisplace for this response. I have friends doing the bio bank and they think the test has told them they have antibodies to the vaccine. They both have both had coronavirus and the test proved positive which it would. There is a lot of confusion about antibody testing. My haemotologist advised me not to do antibody test yet as they do not have a good enough method to analyse the results at this stage in the game. This is apparently why the Birmingham study which I am on does not provide individuals with there results.

This is my understanding at present.

Ann

[bennevisplace in reply to annmcgowan]

Chances are your friends would have developed antibodies to Covid infection, and that the vaccine gave them a strong antibody boost. That's a normal pattern anyway, not applicable to immunocompromised folk.

[annmcgowan in reply to bennevisplace]

Hi that’s exactly what I thought. Her response was stronger than her husbands who also has CLL.Cheers

Ann

[Milla15]

MBL sufferer here. Have done the Biobank test, 5 weeks after my first Astra Zeneca, with negative result. Disappointed. Hoping for some protection from the second jab.