Frontiers in Microbiology (May 2022)

Performance of SARS-CoV-2 Antigen-Detecting Rapid Diagnostic Tests for Omicron and Other Variants of Concern

  • Dàlia Raïch-Regué,
  • Jordana Muñoz-Basagoiti,
  • Daniel Perez-Zsolt,
  • Marc Noguera-Julian,
  • Marc Noguera-Julian,
  • Marc Noguera-Julian,
  • Edwards Pradenas,
  • Eva Riveira-Muñoz,
  • Neus Giménez,
  • Assumpta Carabaza,
  • Francesc Giménez,
  • Verónica Saludes,
  • Verónica Saludes,
  • Elisa Martró,
  • Elisa Martró,
  • Neus Robert,
  • Ignacio Blanco,
  • Roger Paredes,
  • Roger Paredes,
  • Lidia Ruiz,
  • Ester Ballana,
  • Bonaventura Clotet,
  • Bonaventura Clotet,
  • Bonaventura Clotet,
  • Julià Blanco,
  • Julià Blanco,
  • Julià Blanco,
  • Nuria Izquierdo-Useros,
  • Nuria Izquierdo-Useros

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2022.810576
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 13

Abstract

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The SARS-CoV-2 antigen-detecting rapid diagnostic test (Ag-RDTs) is an easy-to-use diagnostic tool to identify the contagious individuals and reduce the new infections. However, to be effective, Ag-RDTs require the detection of distinct variants of concern (VOC) with high analytical sensitivity. Here, we found that the VOC diverge at the nucleocapsid protein used by four commercial Ag-RDTs for the viral detection. Relative to the original D614G variant, there was a 10-fold loss of detection for the Delta and Alpha variants in certain Ag-RDTs, a reduction above the threshold required to isolate the viable virus. However, Beta and Omicron variants did not lose the detection capacity. As the new VOC arise, successful contact tracing requires continuous monitoring of Ag-RDTs performance.

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