Detection of respiratory syncytial virus in nasopharyngeal secretions by ELISA: Comparison with fluorescent antibody technique

Abstract

Samples of nasopharyngeal secretions (NPS) obtained from 140 infants and children with acute respiratory disease were examined for the presence of respiratory syncytial (RS) virus by ELISA. An antiserum produced in rabbits against RS-virus polypeptides was used both as the "capture" antibody and as conjugate in a double-antibody sandwich technique. RS virus was detected by ELISA in specimens of NPS obtained from 72 (51%) of the patients. By comparison RS virus was shown to be present in 86 (61%) of the patients when the immunofluorescent antibody (IF) technique was employed. Samples obtained from 78 of the 140 patients were also examined by inoculation into tissue cultures, and RS-virus was isolated from 47 patients. RS virus was detected by ELISA in 37 (79%) and by IF technique in 43 (91%) of these 47 patients. The IF technique was found to be more sensitive than ELISA, especially in patients older than 9 months and for the examination of specimens of NPS containing only a small percentage of RS-virus antigen-positive cells.

Improved detection of respiratory syncytial virus in nasal aspirates by seminested RT-PCR

“…The majority of the RT-PCR positive and ELISA/virus isolation-negative specimens were obtained from children above one year of age, an age group where 63% of the RSV infections could only be detected by RT-PCR. Results obtained in various studies indicate that the efficiacy of virus detection using ELISA and/or virus isolation is inversely related to the age of the patients [Hornsleth et al,1982;. Large quantities of RSV are usually shed for prolonged periods of time by infants and young children experiencing primary infection.…”

Use of egg-yolk antibody for detection of respiratory syncytial virus in nasal secretions by ELISA

“…Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA), in * Telephone number of corresponding author (M. It, V. van gegenmortel) 33/88/610202. particular, have been shown to be highly suitable for detecting RSV antigens in nasal secretions (3,7,8,9,12,21).…”

An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay using monoclonal antibodies for the detection of respiratory syncytial virus in clinical specimens

“…Immunoreagents employed in these tests either were commercially available [13,29,36], or were produced by immunization with purified RSV [9,17], or by RSV antigens extracted by crossed immunoelectrophoresis [21]. Recently, an ELISA employing, for antigen capture, two monoclonal antibodies one specific for the NP polypeptide and the other for the fusion glycoprotein was commercialised [7,26].…”

“…Solid phase immunoassays such as the radioimmunoassay (RIA) or the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) have been described for the detection of RSV antigen in nasopharyngeal secretions [9,21,29,35]. These methods have been found less sensitive than IFA to the mishandling of specimens during transportation.…”