Descriptive comparison of ELISA and PCR methods in SARS-CoV-2 detection

Abstract

The novel coronavirus, SARS-cov-2, is the causal agent of Covid-19, and allegedly to have a zoonotic origin. In 2019, it was reported in Wuhan, China, and declared pandemic by World Health Organization (WHO) between 2020 and 2023 soon after, to date, there are no known effective cure or treatments. Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) are both commonly used testing assays for SARS-cov-2 diagnosis, but only the RT-PCR recognized as the gold standard for the detection. Despite the better sensitivity and specificity, there are certain limitations RT-PCR possesses that make ELISA more preferable. This article presents a descriptive comparison of ELISA against RT-PCR in term of sensitivity and specificity. In addition, their advantages and disadvantages on these two methods were also discussed. The comparison showed better sensitivity and specificity on RT-PCR as expected, in the aspect of methodology, RT-PCR is more complex and time consuming relative to the ELISA counterpart, which making ELISA more favorable in large-scale implementations.