Evaluation of a peptide‐based enzyme immunoassay for anti‐SARS coronavirus IgG antibody

Chan, Paul K.S.; To, W.K.; Liu, Esther Y.M.; Ng, T.K.; Tam, John S.; Sung, Joseph J.Y.; Lacroix, Jean‐Michel; Houde, Michel

High throughput assays for anti‐SARS‐CoV IgG antibody detection are need for large‐scale epidemiologic studies. The performance of a microplate enzyme immunoassay, DETECT‐SARS™, was evaluated for the detection of anti‐SARS‐CoV IgG antibody. This assay is based on synthetic peptides derived from the nucleocapsid and spike proteins. The results showed that the assay provided a high degree of sensitivity (95.9%) for convalescent serum samples. The level of specificity was close to 90%, and did not show significant variation among different control groups. The high degree of sensitivity together with the high‐throughput nature makes it advantageous as a screening assay for studies where handling of a large number of specimens is required. J. Med. Virol. 74:517–520, 2004. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.