No abstract

The chemotherapeutic efficacy of acyclovir was evaluated in guniea pigs that were inoculated intravaginally with herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2). Acyclovir was administered systemically (50 mg/kg of body weight per day ip) beginning three days after inoculation and continuing for 10-11 days. Treatment with acyclovir reduced the incidence of paralysis of the hind limbs, mortality, and the severity and duration of genital lesions but had little effect on the excretion of virus from the genital tract. Recovery of HSV-2 from neural tissues of infected animals during latent infection was less frequent in acyclovir-treated animals than in untreated ones. These data suggest that acyclovir may be a promising drug for altering the severity of clinical genital herpes in humans during acute infection and reducing the incidence of viral latency following primary infection.

The Meretek 13C urea breath test is an excellent test, but is considerably more expensive than serologic tests. The FlexSure HP and the QuickVue One-Step office-based qualitative IgG serologic antibody tests gave similar results to laboratory based quantitative antibody tests, and are acceptable for initial diagnosis of H. pylori infection. The advantages of the office-based tests are low cost, simplicity, and immediacy of results.

Infection with Helicobacter pylori has been associated with the pathogenesis of chronic active gastritis and gastric and duodenal ulcer disease. Detection of immunoglobulin G antibodies to H. pylori offers a simple alternative to direct detection of the organism in biopsied tissue by culture or histopathological methods. A rapid flow-through membrane-based enzyme immunoassay for the detection of human immunoglobulin G antibodies to H. pylori has been developed and evaluated. Clinical evaluations were performed with 256 patient serum samples obtained from four clinical sites. Biopsy samples were obtained by endoscopic procedures at the same time as the serum samples, and were histopathologically and microbiologically categorized for the presence or absence of H. pylori. Sensitivity and specificity for this rapid enzyme immunoassay were 92 and 88%, respectively, compared directly with endoscopy results. After discordant results were resolved by a quantitative microwell enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, the resulting sensitivity and specificity were 94 and > 99%, respectively. These results indicate that this rapid enzyme immunoassay is a useful technique to determine H. pylori infection status and is a viable alternative to invasive endoscopic procedures.

An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay system (ELISA) was adapted for the detection of antibodies to avian adenovirus (AV) and avian adenovirus-associated virus (A-AV). Both before and after exposure, sera from chickens undergoing natural and experimental infections were assayed by ELISA, virus neutralization (VN), and immunodiffusion (ID) for antibody to both CELO virus and A-AV. The ELISA system was found to be comparable to VN for determining antibody concentrations to CELO virus and A-AV. In many cases, ELISA was found to be more sensitive than ID.