Roszdravnadzor sent a letter to Russian medical organizations and the creators of tests for antibodies to COVID-19 with a requirement to convert the indicators into international units – BAU / ml (binding antibody units), which were approved by the WHO. As the experts explained to Izvestia, standardization is necessary, since until now the amount of antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 was measured in different units.
The document also contains a list of tests (now there are six of them), for which the conversion factor to WHO units has been officially obtained.
According to a researcher at the laboratory of biocatalysis of the IBCh RAS, virologist Georgy Skryabin, bringing the test results to a single system will make it possible to compare them with each other.
It is noted that a unified antibody counting system is also required in order to understand how people are protected in different countries. For example, according to the director of the Gamaleya Center Alexander Gintsburg, 300 BAU is enough to be completely protected from the Delta strain.
However, the Minister of Health of the Russian Federation Mikhail Murashko at a meeting of the State Duma Committee on Health Protection noted that the level of antibodies sufficient to protect against coronavirus infection cannot yet be reliably determined.
As the head of the clinical diagnostic laboratory of the Central Clinical Hospital of the Russian Academy of Sciences Natalya Aleshenko said, the procedure for implementing the recalculation of test results is not as simple as it seems.
“It is necessary not only to buy this standard, but also to amend the instructions for the kits, again conduct clinical trials and register the medical device,” the expert explained.
Aleshenko noted that this is a rather long procedure, which can take up to six months, although from a scientific and technical point of view, it does not present any difficulties.
Read more in the exclusive material from Izvestia:
“BAU effect: how to count antibodies to coronavirus on the WHO scale”
#Experts #talk #recalculation #antibodies #coronavirus #scale