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World J Methodol. May 20, 2022; 12(3): 83-91
Published online May 20, 2022. doi: 10.5662/wjm.v12.i3.83
Molecular and serology methods in the diagnosis of COVID-19: An overview
Marcel Silva Luz, Ronaldo Teixeira da Silva Júnior, Gabriella Almeida Santos de Santana, Gabriela Santos Rodrigues, Henrique de Lima Crivellaro, Mariana Santos Calmon, Clara Faria Souza Mendes dos Santos, Luis Guilherme de Oliveira Silva, Qesya Rodrigues Ferreira, Guilherme Rabelo Mota, Heloísa Heim, Filipe Antônio França da Silva, Breno Bittencourt de Brito, Fabrício Freire de Melo
Marcel Silva Luz, Ronaldo Teixeira da Silva Júnior, Gabriella Almeida Santos de Santana, Gabriela Santos Rodrigues, Henrique de Lima Crivellaro, Mariana Santos Calmon, Clara Faria Souza Mendes dos Santos, Luis Guilherme de Oliveira Silva, Qesya Rodrigues Ferreira, Guilherme Rabelo Mota, Heloísa Heim, Filipe Antônio França da Silva, Breno Bittencourt de Brito, Instituto Multidisciplinar em Saúde, Universidade Federal da Bahia, Vitória da Conquista 45002175, Bahia, Brazil
Fabrício Freire de Melo, Instituto Multidisciplinar em Saúde , Universidade Federal da Bahia, Vitória da Conquista 45029-094, Bahia, Brazil
Author contributions: Luz MS contributed to the conceptualization, methodology, validation, investigation, and writing – original draft; da Silva Júnior RT contributed to the validation, visualization, formal analysis, writing – reviewing and editing; Santos de Santana GA, Rodrigues GS, Crivellaro HL, Calmon MS, dos Santos CFSM, Silva LGO, Ferreira QR, Mota GR, and Heim H contributed to the methodology, writing, visualization, investigation, and formal analysis; Silva FAF contributed to the methodology, visualization, investigation, and formal analysis; de Brito BB contributed to the methodology; de Melo FF contributed to the conceptualization, methodology, investigation, writing – original draft, and supervision.
Conflict-of-interest statement: There is no conflict of interest associated with any of the senior author or other co-authors who contributed their efforts in this manuscript.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Fabrício Freire de Melo, MSc, PhD, Postdoc, Professor, Instituto Multidisciplinar em Saúde, Universidade Federal da Bahia, Rua Hormindo Barros, 58, Quadra 17, Lote 58 - Candeias, Vitória da Conquista - BA, 45029-094, Vitória da Conquista 45029-094, Bahia, Brazil. freiremelo@yahoo.com.br
Received: January 26, 2021
Peer-review started: January 26, 2021
First decision: July 18, 2021
Revised: July 31, 2021
Accepted: April 21, 2022
Article in press: April 21, 2022
Published online: May 20, 2022
Processing time: 477 Days and 11.7 Hours
Abstract

Coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) has become a pandemic, being a global health concern since December 2019 when the first cases were reported. Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, the COVID-19 causal agent, is a β-coronavirus that has on its surface the spike protein, which helps in its virulence and pathogenicity towards the host. Thus, effective and applicable diagnostic methods to this disease come as an important tool for the management of the patients. The use of the molecular technique PCR, which allows the detection of the viral RNA through nasopharyngeal swabs, is considered the gold standard test for the diagnosis of COVID-19. Moreover, serological methods, such as enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays and rapid tests, are able to detect severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2-specific immunoglobulin A, immunoglobulin M, and immunoglobulin G in positive patients, being important alternative techniques for the diagnostic establishment and epidemiological surveillance. On the other hand, reverse transcription loop-mediated isothermal amplification also proved to be a useful diagnostic method for the infection, mainly because it does not require a sophisticated laboratory apparatus and has similar specificity and sensitivity to PCR. Complementarily, imaging exams provide findings of typical pneumonia, such as the ground-glass opacity radiological pattern on chest computed tomography scanning, which along with laboratory tests assist in the diagnosis of COVID-19.

Keywords: COVID-19; Pandemic; Diagnosis; Polymerase chain reaction; Molecular biology; Serology

Core Tip: Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 is primarily detected by PCR, which is the gold standard diagnostic method to detect viral RNA. On the other hand, techniques such as serology with detection of immunoglobulin M and immunoglobulin G antibodies, imaging, and laboratory tests also assist in the diagnosis of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection. Moreover, the reverse transcription loop-mediated isothermal amplification has similar specificity and sensitivity to PCR. In this review, we discuss the main diagnostic methods and their uses in the current pandemic.