Evaluation of Three Commercial and Two Non-Commercial Immunoassays for the Detection of Prior Infection to SARS-CoV-2

Abstract

Background: Serological testing provides a record of prior infection with SARS-CoV-2, but assay performance requires independent assessment.

Methods: We evaluated 3 commercial (Roche Diagnostics pan-IG, and Epitope Diagnostics IgM and IgG) and 2 non-commercial (Simoa and Ragon/MGH IgG) immunoassays against 1083 unique samples that included 251 PCR-positive and 832 prepandemic samples.

Results: The Roche assay registered the highest specificity 99.6% (3/832 false positives), the Ragon/MGH assay 99.5% (4/832), the primary Simoa assay model 99.0% (8/832), and the Epitope IgG and IgM 99.0% (8/830) and 99.5% (4/830), respectively. Overall sensitivities for the Simoa, Roche pan-IG, Epitope IgG, Ragon/MGH IgG, and Epitope IgM were 92.0%, 82.9%, 82.5%, 64.5% and 47.0%, respectively. The Simoa immunoassay demonstrated the highest sensitivity among samples stratified by days postsymptom onset (PSO), <8 days PSO (57.69%) 8-14 days PSO (93.51%), 15-21 days PSO (100%), and > 21 days PSO (95.18%).

Conclusions: All assays demonstrated high to very high specificities while sensitivities were variable across assays.

Keywords: COVID-19; SARs-CoV-2; antibodies; immunoassays; performance; sensitivity; serology; specificity.