ArticleTropical medicine & international health : TM & IH2021
Limited specificity of commercially available SARS-CoV-2 IgG ELISAs in serum samples of African origin.
Article in Tropical medicine & international health : TM & IH, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 50 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
50 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 84 citations in OpenAlex.
- Seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies among healthy blood donors: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMC public health · 2024Pooled it
- SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence among pregnant women during the first three waves of the COVID-19 pandemic in southern Mozambique.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2026Observational
- Genetic association of ACE2 rs2285666 (C>T) and rs2106809 (A>G) and susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 infection among the Ghanaian population.Frontiers in genetics · 2025Article
- COVID-19 seroprevalence cohort survey among health care workers and their household members in Kinshasa, DR Congo, 2020-2022.Journal of health, population, and nutrition · 2024Article
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- Seroprevalence and risk factors for SARS-CoV-2 infection in middle-sized cities of Burkina Faso: A descriptive cross-sectional study.PloS one · 2024Article
- High SARS-CoV-2 seroincidence but low excess COVID mortality in Sierra Leone in 2020-2022.PLOS global public health · 2024Article
- Performance of two SARS-CoV-2 rapid antigen detection tests in resource limited settings, the case of Mali.African health sciences · 2023Article
- Estimating the number of probable new SARS-CoV-2 infections among tested subjects from the number of confirmed cases.BMC medical research methodology · 2023Article
- SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence in pregnant women during the first three COVID-19 waves in The Gambia.International journal of infectious diseases : IJID : official publication of the International Society for Infectious Diseases · 2023Article
- High SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence in Lagos, Nigeria with robust antibody and cellular immune responses.Journal of clinical virology plus · 2023Article
- Serological diagnosis of toxoplasmosis in pregnancy: comparison between a manual commercial ELISA assay and the automated VIDASEuropean journal of clinical microbiology & infectious diseases : official publication of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology · 2023Article
- SARS-CoV-2 Testing Strategies in the Diagnosis and Management of COVID-19 Patients in Low-Income Countries: A Scoping Review.Molecular diagnosis & therapy · 2023Article
- Comparison of one single-antigen assay and three multi-antigen SARS-CoV-2 IgG assays in Nigeria.Journal of clinical virology plus · 2023Article
- Omicron B.1.1.529 variant infections associated with severe disease are uncommon in a COVID-19 under-vaccinated, high SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence population in Malawi.EClinicalMedicine · 2023Article
- Tracking SARS-CoV-2 seropositivity in rural communities using blood-fed mosquitoes: a proof-of-concept study.Frontiers in epidemiology · 2023Article
- The COVID-19 pandemic in sub-Saharan Africa: The significance of presumed immune sufficiency.African journal of laboratory medicine · 2023Review
- Nigeria healthcare worker SARS-CoV-2 serology study: Results from a prospective, longitudinal cohort.PLOS global public health · 2023Article
- Plasmodium infection is associated with cross-reactive antibodies to carbohydrate epitopes on the SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein.Scientific reports · 2022Article
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Authors and funding
20 authors at 8 institutions in 5 countries.
Funding
Abstract
objectivesSpecific serological tests are mandatory for reliable SARS-CoV-2 diagnostics and seroprevalence studies. Here, we assess the specificities of four commercially available SARS-CoV-2 IgG ELISAs in serum/plasma panels originating from Africa, South America, and Europe.
methods882 serum/plasma samples collected from symptom-free donors before the COVID-19 pandemic in three African countries (Ghana, Madagascar, Nigeria), Colombia, and Germany were analysed with three nucleocapsid-based ELISAs (Euroimmun Anti-SARS-CoV-2-NCP IgG, EDI™ Novel Coronavirus COVID-19 IgG, Mikrogen recomWell SARS-CoV-2 IgG), one spike/S1-based ELISA (Euroimmun Anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgG), and in-house common cold CoV ELISAs.
resultsHigh specificity was confirmed for all SARS-CoV-2 IgG ELISAs for Madagascan (93.4-99.4%), Colombian (97.8-100.0%), and German (95.9-100.0%) samples. In contrast, specificity was much lower for the Ghanaian and Nigerian serum panels (Ghana: NCP-based assays 77.7-89.7%, spike/S1-based assay 94.3%; Nigeria: NCP-based assays 39.3-82.7%, spike/S1-based assay 90.7%). 15 of 600 African sera were concordantly classified as positive in both the NCP-based and the spike/S1-based Euroimmun ELISA, but did not inhibit spike/ACE2 binding in a surrogate virus neutralisation test. IgG antibodies elicited by previous infections with common cold CoVs were found in all sample panels, including those from Madagascar, Colombia, and Germany and thus do not inevitably hamper assay specificity. Nevertheless, high levels of IgG antibodies interacting with OC43 NCP were found in all 15 SARS-CoV-2 NCP/spike/S1 ELISA positive sera.
conclusionsDepending on the chosen antigen and assay protocol, SARS-CoV-2 IgG ELISA specificity may be significantly reduced in certain populations probably due to interference of immune responses to endemic pathogens like other viruses or parasites.
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