Development and validation of different indirect ELISAs for MERS-CoV serological testing

Since 2012, MERS-CoV has caused up to 2220 cases and 790 deaths in 27 countries with Saudi Arabia being the most affected country with similar to 83.1% of the cases and similar to 38.8% local death rate. Current serological assays such as microneutralization (MN), plaque reduction neutralization, immunofluorescence, protein microarray or pseudoparticle neutralization assays rely on handling of live MERS-CoV in high containment laboratories or need for expensive and special equipment and reagents and highly trained personnel which represent a technical hurdle for most laboratories in resource-limited MERS-CoV endemic countries. Here, we developed, compared and evaluated three different indirect ELISAs based on MERS-CoV nucleocapsid protein (N), spike (S) ectodomain (amino acids 1-1297) and S1 subunit (amino acids 1-725) and compared them with MN assay. The developed ELISAs were evaluated using large number of confirmed seropositive (79 samples) and seronegative (274 samples) MERS-CoV human serum samples. Both rS1- and rS-ELISAs maintained high sensitivity and specificity (>= 90%) across a wider range of OD values compared to rN-ELISA. Moreover, rS1- and rS-based ELISAs showed better agreement and correlation with MN assay in contrast to rN-ELISA. Collectively, our data demonstrate that rS1-ELISA and rS-ELISA are more reliable than rN-ELISA and represent a suitable choice for seroepidemiological testing and surveillance in MERS-CoV endemic regions.