Serological and RT-PCR diagnosis approaches for COVID-19

The Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection, caused COVID-19, is a pandemic disease and recently
become dangerous to humans in all over the world. There is no efficient medicine for treatment of infected patients, and thousands of
people are dying. Real Time-Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) is a gold standard assay for COVID-19 diagnosis. Currently, RTPCR
assay is the routine method for detecting COVID-19, and several specific primers for different genes of SARS-CoV-2 are used.
However, RT-PCR is not a perfect test, and its reliability depends on the sampling quality and accuracy of the equipment. Mutation
occurrence in the virus genome and impurity in extracted RNA samples of the virus might lead to false results. Many efforts are carried
out to detect SARS-CoV-2 according to various serological methods such as Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA), colloidal
gold-based, and chemiluminescence assays. Finally, the combination of molecular methods like RT-PCR and serological assays such
as ELISA can improve the validity and reliability of aforementioned tests. Here, we summarize the results of some molecular and
serologic tests for SARS-CoV-2 detection.