INTRODUCTION

Within months of the first report on its outbreak, the extent of the pandemic caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2) has reached unexpected dimensions, and despite enormous global scientific efforts, several aspects characterizing the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) and its transmission are not yet fully understood.1-3 A common credo amongst scientists appears to be the fact that analytical diagnostics are vital for understanding and, eventually, managing the pandemic. Here, complementary tests based on real‐time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT‐qPCR) analyses targeting the single‐stranded RNA‐composed virus and immunological approaches monitoring the development of immune responses of infected (and recovered) individuals have been established.4, 5 Advantages and limitations exist with both strategies, and various factors are suspected to affect the reliability of the analytical result1 yet, diagnostics are indispensable, and comprehensiveness and testing frequency is considered to be of particular importance in supporting the confinement of the pandemic.5, 6

An option to facilitate the testing of different anti‐SARS‐CoV‐2 antibodies could be the extension of existing analytical platforms from conventionally collected venous blood samples (including whole blood, serum, and plasma) to minimally invasive sampled capillary blood such as dried blood spots (DBS) or dried plasma spots (DPS), in line with recent initiatives, for example, by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH)7 or the Royal Institute of Technology Stockholm, Sweden,8 as well as earlier investigations into targeting anti‐influenza IgG antibodies.9 Different versions of DBS and DPS collection kits are commercially available and are frequently employed in different areas of drug monitoring and testing.10-12 Sampling can be performed by individuals without the need for medical professionals, samples can be shipped to the test facility by regular mail services to be subjected to routine serology, large numbers of specimens can be obtained in short time periods supporting the testing of cohorts of substantial extent, and lastly dry test material appears to exhibit reduced infectivity13-15 and increased target analyte stability.

中文翻译：

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干血斑 (DBS) 是否有助于进行全面的 SARS-CoV-2 抗体测试？

介绍

在首次报告爆发后的几个月内，由严重急性呼吸系统综合症冠状病毒 2 (SARS-CoV-2) 引起的大流行程度达到了意想不到的程度，尽管全球科学做出了巨大的努力，但 2019 年冠状病毒病的几个特征（COVID-19）及其传播尚未完全了解。1-3科学家的一个共同信条似乎是分析诊断对于理解并最终控制大流行至关重要。在这里，已经建立了基于实时定量聚合酶链反应 (RT-qPCR) 分析的补充测试，针对单链 RNA 组成的病毒和监测受感染（和康复）个体免疫反应发展的免疫学方法。4, 5两种策略都存在优点和局限性，并且怀疑有多种因素会影响分析结果的可靠性1但是，诊断是必不可少的，而全面性和测试频率被认为对于支持遏制大流行特别重要。5、6

促进不同抗 SARS-CoV-2 抗体测试的一种选择可能是将现有分析平台从常规采集的静脉血样本（包括全血、血清和血浆）扩展到微创毛细血管样本，如干血斑点 (DBS) 或干血浆斑点 (DPS)，与最近的举措一致，例如美国国立卫生研究院 (NIH) 7或瑞典斯德哥尔摩皇家理工学院8以及早期针对靶向的调查抗流感 IgG 抗体。9不同版本的 DBS 和 DPS 采集试剂盒已上市，并经常用于药物监测和测试的不同领域。10-12采样可以由个人进行，无需医疗专业人员，可以通过定期邮件服务将样本运送到检测机构进行常规血清学检查，可以在短时间内获得大量样本，支持对大量人群进行检测程度，最后干燥的测试材料似乎表现出降低的传染性13-15和增加的目标分析物稳定性。