Статья

Dual-antigen system allows elimination of false positive results in COVID-19 serological testing

A. Komarov, A. Kaznadzey, Y. Li, M. Kireeva, I. Mazo,
2021

Determining the presence of antibodies in serum is important for epidemiological studies, to be able to confirm whether a person has been infected, predicting risks of them getting sick and spreading the disease. During the ongoing pandemic of COVID-19, a positive serological test result can suggest if it is safe to return to work and re-engage in social activities. Despite a multitude of emerging tests, the quality of respective data often remains ambiguous, yielding a significant fraction of false positive results. The human organism produces polyclonal antibodies specific to multiple viral proteins, so testing simultaneously for multiple antibodies appeared a practical approach for increasing test specificity. We analyzed immune response and testing potential for a spectrum of antigens derived from the spike and nucleocapsid proteins of SARS-CoV-2, developed a dual-antigen testing system in the ELISA format and designed a robust algorithm for data processing. Combining nucleocapsid protein and receptor-binding domain for analysis allowed us to completely eliminate false positive results in the tested cohort (achieving specificity within a 95% confidence interval of 97.2-100%). We also tested samples collected from different households, and demonstrated differences in the immune response of COVID-19 patients and their family members; identifying, in particular, asymptomatic cases showing strong presence of studied antibodies, and cases showing none despite confirmed close contacts with the infected individuals.

Цитирование

Похожие публикации

Источник

Версии

  • 1. Version of Record от 2021-01-01

Метаданные

Об авторах
  • A. Komarov
    VirIntel, LLC
  • A. Kaznadzey
    VirIntel, LLC, Institute for Information Transmission Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences
  • Y. Li
    Georgetown University Medical Center
  • M. Kireeva
    VirIntel, LLC
  • I. Mazo
    VirIntel, LLC, Argentys Informatics, LLC
Название журнала
  • Diagnostics
Том
  • 11
Выпуск
  • 1
Номер гранта
  • undefined
Тип документа
  • journal article
Тип лицензии Creative Commons
  • CC BY
Правовой статус документа
  • Свободная лицензия
Источник
  • scopus