The INSTI HCV Antibody TestShowing the size of the INSTI HCV Antibody Test cartridge
This test is a single-use, rapid, flow-through test of the kind many people will be familiar with in the form of home COVID tests. Instead of a nose or mouth mucous swab, however, the INSTI test uses a small amount of blood taken via a fingerprick. When mixed with the supplied reagents in the correct way, the test is able to detect hepatitis C antibodies. It can also detect these antibodies in human venous whole blood, blood serum, and EDTA plasma (blood plasma combined with ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid, which acts as an anticoagulant, allowing the plasma to stay liquid).
The test results are available as quickly as 60 seconds.
…one-minute INSTI test will really be the gold standard, helping us to scale up testing … which we need to do 12-fold if we want to reach our global elimination targets
The plan is for these kits to be made available across Australia in hepatitis C point-of-care testing sites. A quality assurance panel is being developed to make sure the tests are used reliably and consistently.
Hepatitis SA’s Lisa Carter explained why it’s such an improvement. “In AOD, NSP, Correctional, Homelessness and Mental Health Service settings particularly, we find that people feel that even the 20-minute antibody tests take too long. So, a one-minute INSTI test will really be the gold standard, helping us to scale up testing in these settings, which we need to do twelve-fold if we want to reach our global elimination targets here in Australia.”
“INSTI tests are also less expensive than the current GeneXpert technology used for quick antibody tests, and are both extremely accurate when used correctly, as well as simple enough to be used by staff in the above mentioned services, when they’re visiting peers,” she said.
These rapid antibody tests makes larger scale screening quick and easy, so only people testing positive for HCV antibodies need to take the one-hour RNA test to confirm if they currently have the virus.
The chemicals used in the new INSTI tests are also shelf-stable and compared with other tests, these new tests themselves are less fragile in terms of handling in the field.
A positive test result
“It will work better in prisons as we’d be able to target RNA testing with use of the INSTI more quickly than the current 20-minute test allows, and it is just more realistically achievable to test people in custody during induction than doing traditional needle-and-syringe testing or 20-minute rapid antibody tests,” Lisa explained.
“In the future [these tests] may be deemed suitable for self- testing campaigns (increasing confidentiality, particularly in rural and remote locations, where people are often related or are known to those working in healthcare or Needle and Syringe Program (NSP) sites, or to GPs, hospitals and pharmacies.”
Anything that helps us all in achieving our goal of Hep C elimination in Australia is vital. The availability, speed and relatively inexpensive nature of the INSTI HCV Antibody test kits will be a valuable weapon in that fight.
