Antibody Titers

Antibody titers are an important measure of the immune response to infections or vaccinations. They represent the concentration of specific antibodies in a patient’s blood and can be used to assess the strength and duration of the immune response. 

What are Antibody Titers?

Antibody titers are a measure of the concentration of specific antibodies in a patient’s blood. Antibodies are proteins produced by the immune system in response to a foreign antigen, such as a virus or bacterium. The concentration of antibodies in the blood increases in response to infection or vaccination, and can be measured using a variety of laboratory techniques. Antibody titers are expressed as a numerical value, indicating the dilution of the patient’s serum that contains a detectable level of the specific antibody.

Applications of Antibody Titers:

Antibody titers have many clinical and research applications. In the context of infectious diseases, antibody titers can be used to diagnose active or past infections, as well as to monitor the progression of the disease. For example, rising antibody titers in a patient with an acute infection can indicate an ongoing immune response. In addition, antibody titers can be used to determine immunity to specific pathogens, such as in pre-employment screening for healthcare workers. In the context of vaccine development, antibody titers are used to evaluate the strength and duration of the immune response to candidate vaccines.

Antibody titers are an essential tool in the diagnosis and management of infectious diseases, and in the evaluation of vaccine efficacy. As new infectious agents emerge and existing pathogens continue to evolve, antibody titers will remain a critical tool in the fight against infectious diseases.

Spear Bio’s proprietary SPEAR technology provides qualitative and quantitative NAb titer measurements using real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The two-step polymerase extension can generate a PCR-detectable signal with low background noise. It is this high signal-to-noise ratio that enables greater detection sensitivity compared to standard ELISA test methods. 

The NAB-Sure™ SARS-CoV-2 test kit simplifies testing for SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibodies (NAbs), producing qualitative and quantitative NAb titer measurements using real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The assay has the accuracy of cell-based assays like the plaque-reduction neutralization testing (PRNT), the gold standard for NAb detection, without the safety concerns and long, complicated workflows. What’s more is the assay’s capability to analyze small volumes of serum or plasma enables new micro-sampling techniques to be leveraged during collection.