Validating an ELISpot for Early Detection of an Active Immune Response Against COVID-19

The RT-PCR on rhino-pharynge sampling highlights the genetic material of the virus and indicates that a subject is infected with SARS-CoV-2. This test can be in about 30% of false negative cases, it does not allow to date the infection, nor to predict the asymptomatic, mild, moderate or severe evolution of the disease. In terms of public health, we need 1/ to better understand the chronology of the immune response to the virus in the general population and in contacts of index cases; 2/ To know which characteristics of the immune response are protective of future reinfections. Finally, in symptomatic subjects, we need biomarkers that predict the evolutionary mode of the disease (moderate vs. severe form).