ABSTRACT
Deaths from coronavirus disease (COVID-19) have exceeded 300,000 persons globally, calling for rapid development of mobile diagnostics that can assay widespread prevalence and infection rates. Data provided in this study supports the utility of a newly-designed lateral flow immunoassay (LFA) for detecting SARS-CoV-2 IgM and IgG antibodies. We employed a clinical cohort of 1,892 SARS-CoV-2 patients and controls, including individuals diagnosed by RT-qPCR at Yale New Haven Hospital, The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention of Hefei City (Hefei CDC), Anhui Province (Anhui Province CDC), and Fuyang City (Fuyang CDC). The LFA studied here detects SARS-CoV-2 IgM and IgG antibodies with a specificity of 97.9-100% for IgM, 99.7-100% for IgG, and sensitivities ranging from 94.1-100% for patients >14-days post symptom onset. Sensitivity decreases in patients <14-days post symptom onset, which is likely due to lower IgG/IgM antibody levels in this population. Finally, we developed a visual intensity reporting system that we believe will be suitable for laboratory and point-of-care settings, and will provide granular information about antibody levels. Overall our results support the widespread utility of this and other LFAs in assessing population-level epidemiological statistics.
