Roskilde University, Department of Science and Environment, Universitetsvej 1, Roskilde, Denmark.
Pathog Dis. 2021 Feb 3;79(1). doi: 10.1093/femspd/ftaa069.
Since the outbreak of COVID-19, the world has raced to understand and accurately diagnose infection caused by SARS-CoV-2. Today, hundreds of commercial antibody tests are on the market despite often lacking proper validation and with unsatisfactory sensitivity and/or specificity. In addition, many questions related to the humoral response remain unresolved, although research is carried out at an unprecedented speed. Despite the shortcomings, serological assays have an important part to play in combating the pandemic by aiding in diagnosis and sero-epidemiological studies. However, careful attention must be paid to the application of serology and the interpretation of serological data-especially in low prevalence regions, both at an individual and at a population level. In this article, we argue that serological results are often misinterpreted, and in the eagerness to be first, methodological rigor is often taking a backseat.
自 COVID-19 爆发以来，全世界都在竞相了解和准确诊断由 SARS-CoV-2 引起的感染。如今，尽管许多商业抗体检测经常缺乏适当的验证，且敏感性和/或特异性令人不满意，但仍有数百种此类检测上市。此外，尽管研究正在以前所未有的速度进行，但仍有许多与体液免疫反应相关的问题尚未得到解决。尽管存在这些缺陷，但血清学检测在通过辅助诊断和血清流行病学研究来对抗大流行方面仍具有重要作用。然而，在个体和人群层面上，无论是在低流行地区还是其他地区，都必须要谨慎关注血清学的应用和血清学数据的解读。在本文中，我们认为，血清学结果经常被误解，而且在急于求成的情况下，方法学严谨性往往被忽视。
