Antibody responses to SARS-CoV-2 in patients of novel coronavirus disease 2019

Juanjuan Zhao; Quan Yuan; Haiyan Wang; Wei Liu; Xuejiao Liao; Yingying Su; Xin Wang; Jing Yuan; Tingdong Li; Jinxiu Li; Shen Qian; Congming Hong; Fuxiang Wang; Yingxia Liu; Zhaoqin Wang; Qing He; Zhiyong Li; Bin He; Tianying Zhang; Shengxiang Ge; Lei Liu; Jun Zhang; Ningshao Xia; Zheng Zhang

The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not peer-reviewed) is . https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.03.02.20030189 doi: medRxiv preprint 13 confirmed by RNA testing, the positive result of antibody increases the confidence to make a COVID-19 diagnosis; 2) for healthy close contact who is in the quarantine period, he/she should be deemed as a probable carriers if antibody positive, then the RNA should be tested more frequently and the close contacts of him/her should be observed; 3) for the RNA confirmed patient, seropositive indicates that the specific immune response had been induced. Besides, epidemiological studies could be conducted using immunoassays. Additional, it can play an important role in searching potential animal hosts for SARS-CoV-2 using Ab-ELISA because the double antigen sandwich method makes it free from species restriction. It has been less than three months since the SARS-CoV-2 virus first invaded human society, and the prevalence of antibody against SARS-CoV-2 is nearly zero. Therefore, at least during the current outbreak which is likely to continue to May or June 2020, individuals who are seropositive could be a probably preceding infector of SARS-CoV-2. During this short period, therefore, the total antibody could be considered as a recent infection marker similar as IgM antibody. Our data showed that the sensitivity of total antibody testing is higher than IgM or IgG. Therefore, the total antibody detection should be given high priority to be implemented in current clinical and public health practice. If, unfortunately, SARS-CoV-2 become a common respiratory transmission pathogen lasting in human society, such as influenza viruses or low-pathogenicity types of coronaviruses, rather than be completely eradicated as its relative SARS-CoV-1 virus, the serological diagnosis of acute SARS-CoV-2 infection will more depend on the detection of IgM antibody in post-epidemic areas, such as Wuhan, China, in the subsequent epidemic All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission. the author/funder, who has granted medRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity.