1. Diagnostic performance of the SARS-CoV-2 S1RBD IgG ELISA (ImmunoDiagnostics) for the quantitative detection of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies on dried blood spots
- Author
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Eline Meyers, Anja Coen, An De Sutter, Elizaveta Padalko, Steven Callens, Linos Vandekerckhove, Wojciech Witkowski, Stefan Heytens, and Piet Cools
- Subjects
SARS-CoV-2 ,Vaccination ,Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) ,COVID-19 ,Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay ,Antibodies, Viral ,Sensitivity and Specificity ,International Units/mL ,Serology ,COVID-19 Testing ,Infectious Diseases ,Immunoglobulin G ,Virology ,Dried blood spots (DBS) ,Medicine and Health Sciences ,Humans ,Serosurveillance - Abstract
Dried Blood Spots (DBS) are broadly used in SARS-CoV-2 surveillance studies, reporting either the presence or absence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies. However, quantitative follow-up has become increasingly important to monitor humoral vaccine responses. Therefore, we aimed to evaluate the performance of DBS for the detection of anti-spike SARS-CoV-2 antibody concentrations using a commercially available assay, reporting in a standardised unitage (International Units/mL; IU/mL). To assess the sensitivity and specificity of the ImmunoDiagnostics ELISA on serum and DBS for SARS-CoV-2 antibody detection, we analysed 72 paired DBS and serum samples. The SARS-CoV-2 51 IgG ELISA kit (EUROIMMUN) on serum was used as the reference method. We performed a statistical assessment to optimise the cutoff value for DBS and serum and assessed the correlation between DBS and serum antibody concentrations. We found that anti-spike SARS-CoV-2 antibody concentrations detected in DBS are highly correlated to those detected in paired serum (Pearson correlation 0.98; p-value < 0.0001), allowing to assess serum antibody concentration using DBS. The optimal cut-off for antibody detection on DBS was found to be 26 IU/mL, with 98.1% sensitivity and 100% specificity. For serum, the optimal cut-off was 14 IU/mL, with 100% sensitivity and 100% specificity. Therefore, we conclude that the ImmunoDiagnostics ELISA kit has optimal performance in the detection of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies on both DBS and serum. This makes DBS ideal for large-scale follow-up of humoral SARS-CoV-2 immune responses, as it is an easy but valuable sampling method for quantification of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies, compared to serum.
- Published
- 2022
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