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Review
. 2021 Jul 23:8:682405.
doi: 10.3389/fmolb.2021.682405. eCollection 2021.

Evaluation and Comparison of Serological Methods for COVID-19 Diagnosis

Fanwu Gong  1 , Hua-Xing Wei  2 , Qiangsheng Li  1 , Liu Liu  3 , Bofeng Li  1
Affiliations
Review

Evaluation and Comparison of Serological Methods for COVID-19 Diagnosis

Fanwu Gong et al. Front Mol Biosci. .

Abstract

The worldwide pandemic of COVID-19 has become a global public health crisis. Various clinical diagnosis methods have been developed to distinguish COVID-19-infected patients from healthy people. The nucleic acid test is the golden standard for virus detection as it is suitable for early diagnosis. However, due to the low amount of viral nucleic acid in the respiratory tract, the sensitivity of nucleic acid detection is unsatisfactory. As a result, serological screening began to be widely used with the merits of simple procedures, lower cost, and shorter detection time. Serological tests currently include the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), lateral flow immunoassay (LFIA), and chemiluminescence immunoassay (CLIA). This review describes various serological methods, discusses the performance and diagnostic effects of different methods, and points out the problems and the direction of optimization, to improve the efficiency of clinical diagnosis. These increasingly sophisticated and diverse serological diagnostic technologies will help human beings to control the spread of COVID-19.

Keywords: COVID-19 diagnosis; ELISA; LFIA; SARS-CoV-2; antibody; serological testing.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Schematic of the lateral flow immunoassay for testing anti-SARS-COV-2 antibodies (Li, Yi et al., 2020). (1) Sample pad, (2) conjugate release pad, (3) membrane with immobilized antibodies, (4) adsorbent pad, and (5) adhesive pad.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Effectiveness of different serological diagnosis tests for anti-SARS-COV-2 antibodies. Sensitivity (A) and specificity (B) of ELISA, CLIA, LFIA, and IFA tests for anti-SARS-COV-2 IgM, IgG, and IgA.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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