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

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

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Microbiology

VOLUME=Volume 13 - 2022

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/microbiology/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2022.810576

DOI=10.3389/fmicb.2022.810576

ISSN=1664-302X

ABSTRACT=SARS-CoV-2 antigen-detecting rapid diagnostic tests (Ag-RDTs) are an easy-to-use diagnostic tool to identify contagious individuals and reduce new infections. Yet, to be effective, Ag-RDTs require detection of distinct variants of concern (VOC) with high analytical sensitivity. Here we found that VOC diverge at the nucleocapsid protein used by four commercial Ag-RDTs for 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 viable virus. However, Beta and Omicron variants did not lose detection capacity. As new VOC arise, successful contact tracing will require continuous monitoring of Ag-RDTs performance.