Diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 virus is mainly based on direct detection. Determination of specific antibodies has been used mostly for epidemiological reasons. However, select immunoassays showed good correlation to plaque reduction virus neutralization test (PRNT) in smaller patient cohorts, which suggests their potential as predictors of virus neutralization titer. A total of 3,699 samples from Covid-19 patients were included in the multicentric study performed in the Czech Republic. Anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibody levels were evaluated by 8 commercial antibody assays. Simultaneously, PRNT evaluations were performed with the SARS-CoV-2 B.1.258 variant. All immunoassays showed an overall high true positive diagnostic value ranging from 79.17 to 98.04%. Several commercial EIA methods showed highly positive correlation between the assay results and PRNT levels, e.g., Liaison CoV-2 TrimericS IgG DiaSorin (Spearman r = 0.8833; Architect SASRS-CoV-2 IgG Abbott (r = 0.7298); NovaLisa SARS-CoV-2 IgG NovaTec (r = 0.7103) and Anti-SARS-CoV-2 ELISA IgG Euroimmun (r = 0.7094). While this correlation was less positive for other assays, those, conversely, presented higher true positive values. For most immunoassays, the positive percent agreement of the results was ≥ 95% in sera exhibiting PRNT levels of 1:80 and higher. The assays tested have shown variable correlation to PRNT. Those possessing high positive predictive values serve well as qualitative tests, while others can be utilised as quantitative tests highly predictive of neutralization antibody levels.

Department of Epidemiology Military Faculty of Medicine University of Defence Hradec Kralove Czech Republic

Department of Experimental Biology Faculty of Science Masaryk University Brno Czech Republic

Department of Hematology and Blood Transfusion Military University Hospital Prague Praha Czech Republic

Department of Virology Veterinary Research Institute Brno Czech Republic

Faculty of Biomedical Engineering Czech Technical University Prague Prague Czech Republic

Faculty of Medicine in Hradec Kralove Charles University Hradec Kralove Czech Republic

Institute of Clinical Microbiology University Hospital in Hradec Kralove Sokolska 581 Hradec Kralove 50005 Czech Republic

Institute of Parasitology Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences Ceske Budejovice Czech Republic

Military Health Institute Prague Czech Republic

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