School of Life Sciences, Shanghai University, Shanghai, 200444, China.
Department of Oncology, No. 215 Hospital of Shaanxi Nuclear Industry, Xianyang City, Shaanxi Province, 712000, China.
J Virol Methods. 2022 Mar;301:114437. doi: 10.1016/j.jviromet.2021.114437. Epub 2021 Dec 18.
COVID-19, a new respiratory infectious disease, was first reported at the end of 2019, in Wuhan, China. Now, COVID-19 is still causing major loss of human life and economic productivity in almost all countries around the world. Early detection, early isolation, and early diagnosis of COVID-19 patients and asymptomatic carriers are essential to blocking the spread of the pandemic. This paper briefly reviewed COVID-19 diagnostic assays for clinical application, including nucleic acid tests, immunological methods, and Computed Tomography (CT) imaging. Nucleic acid tests (NAT) target the virus genome and indicates the existence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Currently, real-time quantitative PCR (qPCR) is the most widely used NAT and, basically, is the most used diagnostic assay for COVID-19. Besides qPCR, many novel rapid and sensitive NAT assays were also developed. Serological testing (detection of serum antibodies specific to SARS-CoV-2), which belongs to the immunological methods, is also used in the diagnosis of COVID-19. The positive results of serological testing indicate the presence of antibodies specific to SARS-CoV-2 resulting from being infected with the virus. Viral antigen detection assays are also important immunological methods used mainly for rapid virus detection. However, only a few of these assays had been reported. CT imaging is still an important auxiliary diagnosis tool for COVID-19 patients, especially for symptomatic patients in the early stage, whose viral load is low and different to be identified by NAT. These diagnostic techniques are all good in some way and applying a combination of them will greatly improve the accuracy of COVID-19 diagnostics.
COVID-19，一种新的呼吸道传染病，于 2019 年底在中国武汉首次报告。如今，COVID-19 仍在世界几乎所有国家造成重大的人类生命损失和经济生产力损失。早期发现、隔离和诊断 COVID-19 患者和无症状携带者对于阻断疫情传播至关重要。本文简要回顾了 COVID-19 的临床应用诊断检测方法，包括核酸检测、免疫学方法和计算机断层扫描（CT）成像。核酸检测（NAT）针对病毒基因组，表明存在 SARS-CoV-2 病毒。目前，实时定量 PCR（qPCR）是最广泛使用的 NAT，基本上是 COVID-19 最常用的诊断检测方法。除了 qPCR，还开发了许多新型快速灵敏的 NAT 检测方法。血清学检测（检测针对 SARS-CoV-2 的血清抗体）属于免疫学方法，也用于 COVID-19 的诊断。血清学检测的阳性结果表明存在针对 SARS-CoV-2 的抗体，这是由感染病毒引起的。病毒抗原检测检测也是主要用于快速病毒检测的重要免疫学方法。然而，只有少数这些检测方法被报道。CT 成像仍然是 COVID-19 患者的重要辅助诊断工具，特别是对于病毒载量低且难以通过 NAT 识别的有症状患者。这些诊断技术在某些方面都有其优势，将它们结合应用将大大提高 COVID-19 诊断的准确性。
