SARS-CoV-2 anti-nucleocapsid assay performance in healthcare workers at baseline and 6 months

Serological SARS-CoV-2 assays have an important role in guiding the pandemic response. This research aimed to compare the performance of 2 antinucleocapsid assays.

Serum from 49 HCWs was analysed at baseline and 6 months using the Abbott diagnostics SARS-CoV-2 IgG assay and the Roche Diagnostics Elecsys Anti-SARS-CoV-2 total antibody assay.

At baseline, 14/49 participants (29%) demonstrated antibody reactivity using the Abbott assay. At 6 months, 4/14 participants (29%) continued to demonstrate reactivity. A total of 14/49 (29%) participants had detectable antibodies at baseline using the Roche assay. In total, 13/14 (93%) of participants demonstrated antibody reactivity at 6 months. The Abbott assay showed a statistically significant difference in the signal-to-threshold values of baseline reactive samples when repeated at 6 months (p = 0.001). This was not seen with the Roche assay (p = 0.51).

In this small study, the Roche Diagnostics Elecsys Anti-SARS-CoV-2 total antibody assay appears superior in performance to the Abbott diagnostics SARS-CoV-2 IgG assay in accurately detecting participants with a history of confirmed COVID-19 disease at 6 months follow-up. This finding should be born in mind in the planning of future seroprevalence studies, especially when considering the use of anti-nucleocapsid assays.