May 05, 2020
Bulletin interne de l'Institut Pasteur
Development and evaluation of four serological tests for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies and two tests for the detection of neutralizing antibodies
Approximately four months after the initial description of cases of atypical pneumonia in Wuhan, China, in December 2019, COVID-19 has become a major pandemic threat. By April 12, 2020, around half of the world's population was in lockdown, with 1.8 million officially diagnosed cases. Scientists from the Institut Pasteur, the CNRS, Inserm and Université de Paris have conducted a pilot study to evaluate the reliability of several laboratory tests with the aim of gaining a better understanding of the profile of antibody responses to SARS-CoV-2 and how the virus is spreading among the population. To date, four tests for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies have been developed and evaluated, as well as two tests for the detection of neutralizing antibodies. These tests, known as laboratory tests, are a first stage in epidemiological research on COVID-19. The results of the study have been published online on MedRxiv.