Evaluation of the clinical performance of a magnetic force-assisted electrochemical immunoassay for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 antigens

PLoS One. 2021 Oct 7;16(10):e0258394. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0258394. eCollection 2021.

Abstract

Rapid antigen (Ag) tests for the detection of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) provide quick results, do not require specialized technical skills or infrastructure, and can be used as a point-of-care method to prevent the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19). The performance of a magnetic force-assisted electrochemical immunoassay-based test, namely the MARK-B COVID-19 Ag test (BBB, Sungnam, Republic of Korea), was evaluated using 170 nasopharyngeal swab specimens and compared to that of RT-PCR and commercial rapid Ag test (STANDARD Q COVID-19 Ag Test, SD Biosensor, Suwon-si, Republic of Korea). The overall sensitivity and specificity of the MARK-B test were 90.0% (95% CI 79.4%-96.2%) and 99.0% (95% CI 95.0%-99.9%), respectively, with a kappa coefficient of 0.908. The correlations between the electrical current values of MARK-B and the Ct values of RT-PCR were -0.898 (E gene, 95% CI -0.938 to -0.834) and -0.914 (RdRp gene, 95% CI -0.948 to -0.860), respectively. The limit of detection of the MARK-B was measured using the viral culture reference samples and found to be 1 x 102 pfu/mL. The magnetic force-assisted electrochemical immunoassay-based Ag test can be used to rapidly detect SARS-CoV-2 infections, and the corresponding fully automated portable device can provide easy readability and semi-quantitative results.

Publication types

  • Evaluation Study
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Antigens, Viral / immunology*
  • COVID-19 Serological Testing*
  • COVID-19* / diagnosis
  • COVID-19* / immunology
  • Electrochemical Techniques*
  • Humans
  • Immunoassay
  • Magnetic Fields*
  • Republic of Korea
  • SARS-CoV-2 / immunology*

Substances

  • Antigens, Viral

Grants and funding

This work supported by BBB. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.