Comparison of six COVID-19 serology assays for detection of antibodies from patients infected with ancestral and a spectrum of SARS-CoV-2 variants

Authors

• Rachel Lau, Public Health Ontario, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
• Chandrika Senthilkumaran, Public Health Ontario, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
• Jeffrey Chong, Public Health Ontario, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
• Freda Qi, Public Health Ontario, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
• Rosmol-Stanes Pulikkottil, Public Health Ontario, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
• Jennifer Ma, Public Health Ontario, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
• Katherene Ogbulafor, Public Health Ontario, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
• Larry Gabe, Public Health Ontario, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
• Kathy Manguiat, National Microbiology Laboratory, Public Health Agency of Canada, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
• Alyssia Robinson, National Microbiology Laboratory, Public Health Agency of Canada, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
• Heidi Wood, National Microbiology Laboratory, Public Health Agency of Canada, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
• Angel Xinliu Li, Department of Microbiology, Sinai Health System, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
• Mohammad Mozafarihashjin, Rochester Regional HealthFollow
• Aaron Campigotto, Department of Microbiology, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
• Allison J. McGeer, Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute at Mount Sinai Hospital, Sinai Health, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
• Samira Mubareka, Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
• Jonathan B. Gubbay, BC Children's Hospital, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
• Julianne V. Kus, Public Health Ontario, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
• Shelly Bolotin, Public Health Ontario, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
• Melissa Richard-Greenblatt, Public Health Ontario, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
• Vanessa Tran, Public Health Ontario, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Department

Internal Medicine

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Access Microbiology

Abstract

Serology assays against spike, receptor binding domain (RBD) and nucleocapsid proteins of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 are essential for serosurveillance. We performed a comparison of four medium-to-high throughput commercial assays [Abbott Laboratories, Ortho Clinical Diagnostics, Meso Scale Diagnostics (MSD)], one point-of-care test (ZEKMED) and a laboratory-developed plaque reduction neutralization test using a reference panel and clinical specimens. Overall, the assays showed a high positive percent agreement of ≥ 85% and negative percent agreement of ≥ 90%, with the MSD anti-spike IgG assay having the best performance (100% in both). Notably, Abbott anti-nucleocapsid IgG, MSD anti-spike IgG and ZEKMED anti-spike RBD IgM/IgG combined assays were able to detect antibodies from individuals infected with all different variants tested - Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta and Omicron. The limit of detection (LOD) of the assays ranged from 9.9 to 62.0 BAU ml^-1, with the Abbott anti-spike RBD having the lowest LOD. The COVID-19 serology assays will continue to be useful in determining seroprevalence from infection and vaccination.

First Page

000974.v3

DOI

10.1099/acmi.0.000974.v3

Volume

7

Issue

7

Publication Date

7-1-2025

PubMed ID

40697976

Recommended Citation

Lau, R., Senthilkumaran, C., Chong, J., Qi, F., Pulikkottil, R., Ma, J., Ogbulafor, K., Gabe, L., Manguiat, K., Robinson, A., Wood, H., Li, A. X., Mozafarihashjin, M., Campigotto, A., McGeer, A. J., Mubareka, S., Gubbay, J. B., Kus, J. V., Bolotin, S., Richard-Greenblatt, M., & Tran, V. (2025). Comparison of six COVID-19 serology assays for detection of antibodies from patients infected with ancestral and a spectrum of SARS-CoV-2 variants. Access Microbiology, 7 (7), 000974.v3. https://doi.org/10.1099/acmi.0.000974.v3