1/ We developed & validated an oral fluid assay to measure #SARSCoV2 antibodies. Basically it’s a lollipop stick with a sponge that collects oral fluid (saliva) from around cheeks/gums. Kids can do the test themselves & sample can be posted to the lab 🧵👉 medrxiv.org/content/10.110…
2/ Here’s the technical stuff: We used contemporaneous blood & oral fluid samples from ~2,000 kids & adults taking part in our school studies and developed 3 different oral fluid assays for testing & validating: N-antibody, Spike-antibody & RBD-antibody 👉 medrxiv.org/content/10.110… 
3/ The N-protein capture assay was the best candidate, sensitivity 75% (95%CI, 71–79%) specificity 99% (95% CI: 78–99%) when compared with paired serum antibodies, but higher sensitivity in kids (80%, 95% CI: 71–88%) than adults (67%, CI: 60%-74%) 👉 medrxiv.org/content/10.110…
4/ The other oral fluid assays using spike protein and RBD antigens were also 99% specific but lower sensitivity in the target population: 78% (95%CI 68%-86%) for Spike and 53% (95%CI, 43%-64%) for RBD assay 👉 medrxiv.org/content/10.110…
5/ Whilst blood remains the best test for antibodies, oral fluids are great for testing 1,000’s of people for population-based studies, like our school infection survey (SIS). We are also improving the assay to test for the virus itself, multiple antibodies & other viruses /End
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