Validation and performance of a quantitative IgG assay for the screening of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies

ABSTRACT

The current COVID-19 epidemic imposed an unpreceded challenge to the scientific community in terms of treatment, epidemiology, diagnosis, social interaction, fiscal policies and many other areas. The development of accurate and reliable diagnostic tools (high specificity and sensitivity) is crucial in the current period, the near future and in the long term. These assays should provide guidance to identify immune presumptive protected persons, potential plasma, and/or B cell donors and vaccine development among others. Also, such assays will be contributory in supporting prospective and retrospective studies to identify the prevalence and incidence of COVID-19 and to characterize the dynamics of the immune response. As of today, only thirteen serological assays have received the Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) by the U.S. Federal Drug Administration (FDA). In this work we describe the development and validation of a quantitative IgG enzyme-linked immunoassay (ELISA) using the recombinant SARS-CoV-2 Spike Protein S1 domain, containing the receptor-binding domain (RBD), showing 98% sensitivity, 98.9% specificity and positive and negative predictive values of 100% and 99.2%, respectively. The assay showed to be useful to test for SARS-CoV-2 IgG antibodies in plasma samples from COVID-19-recovered subjects as potential donors for plasmapheresis. This assay is currently under review by the Federal Drug Administration for an Emergency Use Authorization request (Submission Number EUA201115).