Clinical sensitivity and specificity of a high-throughput microfluidic nano-immunoassay combined with capillary blood microsampling for the identification of anti-SARS-CoV-2 Spike IgG serostatus

ObjectivesWe evaluate the diagnostic performance of dried blood microsampling combined with a high-throughput microfluidic nano-immunoassay (NIA) for the identification of anti-SARS-CoV-2 Spike IgG seropositivity. MethodsWe conducted a serological study among 192 individuals with documented prior SARS-CoV-2 infection and 44 SARS-CoV-2 negative individuals. Participants with prior SARS-CoV-2 infection had a long interval of 11 months since their qRT-PCR positive test. Serum was obtained after venipuncture and tested with an automated electrochemiluminescence anti-SARS-CoV-2 S total Ig reference assay, a commercial ELISA anti-S1 IgG assay, and the index test NIA. In addition, 109 participants from the positive cohort and 44 participants from the negative cohort participated in capillary blood collection using three microsampling devices: Mitra, repurposed glucose test strips, and HemaXis. Samples were dried, shipped by regular mail, extracted, and measured with NIA. ResultsUsing serum samples, we achieve a clinical sensitivity of 98 center dot 33% and specificity of 97 center dot 62% on NIA, affirming the high performance of NIA in participants 11 months post infection. Combining microsampling with NIA, we obtain a clinical sensitivity of 95 center dot 05% using Mitra, 61 center dot 11% using glucose test strips, 83 center dot 16% using HemaXis, and 91 center dot 49% for HemaXis after automated extraction, without any drop in specificity. DiscussionHigh sensitivity and specificity was demonstrated when testing micro-volume capillary dried blood samples using NIA, which is expected to facilitate its use in large-scale studies using home-based sampling or samples collected in the field.