Serologic and molecular biologic methods for SARS-associated coronavirus infection, Taiwan

• Published in: Emerging infectious diseases Vol. 10; no. 2; pp. 304 - 310
• Main Authors: Wu, Ho-Sheng, Chiu, Shu-Chun, Tseng, Tsan-Chang, Lin, Szu-Fong, Lin, Jih-Hui, Hsu, Yu-Hen, Wang, Mei-Ching, Lin, Tsuey-Li, Yang, Wen-Zieh, Ferng, Tian-Lin, Huang, Kai-Hung, Hsu, Li-Ching, Lee, Li-Li, Yang, Jyh-Yuan, Chen, Hour-Young, Su, Shun-Pi, Yang, Shih-Yan, Lin, Shih-Yan, Lin, Ting-Hsiang, Su, Ih-Sen
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States U.S. National Center for Infectious Diseases 01.02.2004; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• Subjects: Antibodies, Viral - blood; Antigens, Viral - genetics; Blotting, Western; Chromatography; Cross Reactions; ELISA; Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; Fluorescent Antibody Technique; Humans; IFA; immunochromatographic test; neutralization test; Neutralization Tests; Predictive Value of Tests; Recombinant Proteins - genetics; Recombinant Proteins - immunology; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; SARS coronavirus; SARS Virus - genetics; SARS Virus - immunology; SARS Virus - isolation & purification; SARS-CoV; Sensitivity and Specificity; serodiagnostic methods; Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome - diagnosis; Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome - epidemiology; Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome - immunology; Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome - virology; Taiwan - epidemiology; Taiwan
• ISSN: 1080-6040; 1080-6059
• DOI: 10.3201/eid1002.030731

Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) has raised a global alert since March 2003. After its causative agent, SARS-associated coronavirus (SARS-CoV), was confirmed, laboratory methods, including virus isolation, reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), and serologic methods, have been quickly developed. In this study, we evaluated four serologic tests ( neutralization test, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay [ELISA], immunofluorescent assay [IFA], and immunochromatographic test [ICT]) for detecting antibodies to SARS-CoV in sera of 537 probable SARS case-patients with correlation to the RT-PCR. With the neutralization test as a reference method, the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value were 98.2%, 98.7%, 98.7%, and 98.4% for ELISA; 99.1%, 87.8%, 88.1% and 99.1% for IFA; 33.6%, 98.2%, 95.7%, and 56.1% for ICT, respectively. We also compared the recombinant-based western blot with the whole virus-based IFA and ELISA; the data showed a high correlation between these methods, with an overall agreement of >90%. Our results provide a systematic analysis of serologic and molecular methods for evaluating SARS-CoV infection.