Serological detection of 2019-nCoV respond to the epidemic: A useful complement to nucleic acid testing

• Published in: International immunopharmacology Vol. 88; p. 106861
• Main Authors: Zhang, Jin, Zhang, Xiaoming, Liu, Jianhua, Ban, Yuan, Li, Na, Wu, Yunhai, Liu, Yong, Ye, Rui, Liu, Jinyang, Li, Xinghai, Li, Luping, Qin, Xiaosong, Zheng, Rui
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Netherlands Elsevier B.V 01.11.2020; Elsevier BV
• Subjects: Adult; Antibodies; Antibodies, Viral - blood; Antibody; Betacoronavirus - immunology; Chemiluminescence; Clinical Laboratory Techniques; Coronavirus; Coronavirus Infections - blood; Coronavirus Infections - diagnosis; Coronavirus Infections - immunology; Coronaviruses; COVID-19; COVID-19 Testing; Disease control; Epidemics; Female; Humans; Immunoassay; Immunoglobulin G; Immunoglobulin G - blood; Immunoglobulin M; Immunoglobulin M - blood; Male; Middle Aged; Nucleic acid; Nucleic acids; Pandemics; Pneumonia, Viral - blood; Pneumonia, Viral - immunology; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; SARS-CoV-2; Sensitivity and Specificity; Seroepidemiologic Studies; Seroepidemiology; Serology; Severity of Illness Index; Signs and symptoms; Viral diseases; Viruses; Young Adult; Serology; Coronavirus; Antibody; Nucleic acid
• ISSN: 1567-5769; 1878-1705; 1878-1705
• DOI: 10.1016/j.intimp.2020.106861

•We observed the characteristics of specific antibody production of COVID-19 patients.•For the first time, we studied the specific antibody levels of different populations.•Detecting specific antibodies is a complementary approach to diagnose COVID-19. Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has spread rapidly to more than 215 countries, with over 11.91 million reported cases and more than 540,000 deaths. Rapid diagnosis remains a bottleneck for containing the epidemic. We used an automated chemiluminescent immunoassay to detect serum IgM and IgG antibodies to the 2019-nCoV in 742 subjects, so as to observe the dynamic process of antibody production in COVID-19 disease and seroepidemiology in different populations. Patients with COVID-19 were reactive (positive) for specific antibodies within 3–15 days after onset of symptoms. Specific IgM and IgG levels increased with the progression of the disease. The areas under the receiver operating characteristic curves for IgM and IgG were 0.984 and 1.000, respectively. This antibody detection assay had good sensitivity and specificity. The understanding of the dynamic serological changes of COVID-19 patients and the seroepidemiological situation of the population will be helpful to further control the epidemic of COVID-19.