PLoS ONE (Jan 2025)

Low agreement and frequent invalid controls in two SARS-CoV-2 T-cell assays in people with compromised immune function.

  • Annette Audigé,
  • Alain Amstutz,
  • Macé M Schuurmans,
  • Patrizia Amico,
  • Dominique L Braun,
  • Marcel P Stoeckle,
  • Barbara Hasse,
  • René Hage,
  • Dominik Damm,
  • Michael Tamm,
  • Nicolas J Mueller,
  • Huldrych F Günthard,
  • Michael T Koller,
  • Christof M Schönenberger,
  • Alexandra Griessbach,
  • Niklaus D Labhardt,
  • Roger D Kouyos,
  • Alexandra Trkola,
  • Michael Huber,
  • Katharina Kusejko,
  • Heiner C Bucher,
  • Irene A Abela,
  • Matthias Briel,
  • Frédérique Chammartin,
  • Benjamin Speich,
  • Swiss HIV Cohort Study, and the Swiss Transplant Cohort Study

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0317965
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 20, no. 1
p. e0317965

Abstract

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T-cell response plays an important role in SARS-CoV-2 immunogenicity. For people living with HIV (PWH) and solid organ transplant (SOT) recipients there is limited evidence on the reliability of commercially available T-cell tests. We assessed 173 blood samples from 81 participants (62 samples from 35 PWH; 111 samples from 46 SOT recipients [lung and kidney]) with two commercial SARS-CoV-2 Interferon-γ (IFN-γ) release assays (IGRA; SARS-CoV-2 IGRA by Euroimmun, and IGRA SARS-CoV-2 by Roche). The reliability between the tests was judged as low (Cohen's kappa [κ] = 0.20; overall percent agreement [OPA] = 66%). A high proportion of tests were invalid (22% Euroimmun; 8% Roche). When excluding these invalid tests, the agreement was higher (κ = 0.43; OPA = 90%). The low reliability between the two T-cell tests indicates that results should be interpreted with caution in SOT recipients and PWH and that SARS-CoV-2 T-cell tests need to be optimized and further validated for use in vulnerable patient populations.