The Food and Drug Administration has issued emergency permits for a new coronavirus test method using the body’s T cells – which could help diagnose COVID long-term animals better.
The T-Detect COVID-19 test – developed by Adaptive Biotechnologies Corp. in Seattle, in collaboration with Microsoft – is described as a “next generation” screening method that analyzes DNA from T cells in blood samples instead of the current testing methods that screen for immune proteins.
“The T-Detect COVID test will be a useful tool to determine if anyone has had COVID-19 before,” the FDA announced Friday. “This is especially important for people who have had symptoms before or believe they have been exposed but have not tested positive.”
Prior to FDA approval, the company’s chief medical officer told Bloomberg that the $ 150 test could help people who think they are infected but who have not been diagnosed – especially so-called “long-term guards” who have had symptoms. for weeks or months. .
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“Some of these people have never been diagnosed,” Adaptive’s Lance Baldo told Bloomberg in January. “Sometimes their doctors wonder, and frankly, this is where it gets ugly – sometimes their insurers wonder.”
The blood test extracts DNA from T cells and then uses machine learning software developed in a Microsoft partnership to determine if the person was previously infected with the virus.
“We are looking for the print, such as an investigation into a crime scene,” said Dr. William Li, a T-Detect prescribing physician, explained to ABC News on Tuesday.
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“So many people have had the disease, recovered, never received a clear diagnosis, yet they suffer from these bizarre, persistent symptoms. The T-cell test was very helpful in this long tail of COVID to help patients to determine where they are. “
Baldo told ABC News T cells work as the foot soldiers of the immune system.
How long their reaction stays in the body remains unclear, but British research suggests it could take up to six months – possibly longer than antibodies, Bloomberg reports.
This article originally appeared on NYPost.com.