Evaluation of the EUROIMMUN Anti-SARS-CoV-2 ELISA Assay for detection of IgA and IgG antibodies

Matushek, Scott M.; Beavis, Kathleen G.; Abeleda, Ana; Bethel, Cindy; Hunt, Carlissa; Gillen, Stephanie; Moran, Angelica; Tesic, Vera

As the Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic evolves, the development of immunoassays to help determine exposure and potentially predict immunity has become a pressing priority. In this report we present the performance of the EUROIMMUN enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for semi-quantitative detection of IgA and IgG antibodies in serum and plasma samples using recombinant S1 domain of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein as antigen. Specimens from patients, with and without COVID-19 infection, were tested at the University of Chicago Clinical Microbiology and Immunology Laboratory. Of 57 samples from COVID-19 PCR-negative patients, including 28 samples positive for common human coronavirus strains, 53 tested negative and 4 tested positive for IgA (93.0% agreement) while 56 tested negative and 1 tested positive for IgG (98.2% agreement). For COVID-19 PCR-positive patients, 29 of 30 (96.7%) samples collected ≥3 days after positive PCR were positive for IgA, and 28 of 28 samples collected ≥4 days after positive PCR were positive for IgG. The EUROIMMUN Anti-SARS-CoV-2 ELISA Assay demonstrates excellent sensitivity for detection of IgA and IgG antibodies from samples collected ≥3 days and ≥4 days, respectively, after COVID-19 diagnosis by PCR. This assay did not demonstrate cross reaction in any of the 28 samples from patients with common human coronaviruses, including types HKU1, NL63, CV229E, and OC43.