Rubella immunity by four different techniques: results of challenge studies

Abstract

When 42 sera with low or inconsistent levels of haemagglutination-inhibiting (HAI) antibodies were tested by single radial haemolysis (SRH) radioimmunoassay (RIA), and enzyme-linked immunoassay (ELISA), RIA was shown to be the most reliable test for detecting low levels of antibody. SRH, however, was found to be an acceptable alternative screening test for rubella antibodies and was more reliable than HAI. Although SRH plates prepared in our own laboratory failed to detect antibodies in six sera, in five of the six, antibodies were only at a low level (RIA titre 1:20-1:80). OriVir plates (Orion Diagnostica, Finland) failed to detect low levels of antibody in only three sera. There were six (14.3%) sera which were false positives in the HAI test. These women were shown to be seronegative by radioimmunoassay and, when three of these six volunteers were vaccinated, they developed a typical primary immune response which resembled that developed by 43 seronegative women following vaccination. Fifteen of the young women with consistently low HAI titres and one woman who was seronegative by HAI but seropositive by RIA and ELISA were subsequently vaccinated. Six (37.5%) of these women showed no significant rise in titre by any of the tests employed, while ten had a significant rise in titre, detected by at least one test, with a low level of rubella-specific IgM detectable in one.

Molecular Biology of Rubella Virus

“…Assays which discriminate between strains include neutralization (Gould and Butler, 1980), radioimmune precipitation (Ho-Terry et al, 19821, and Western blotting (Dorsett et al, 1985;Cusi et al, 1989), but not HI (Best and Banatvala, 1970). As a result of natural infection or vaccination, a persisting circulating antibody titer is developed that can be measured by neutralization, HI, complement fixation, or a number of assays that measure binding of antibody to virus antigen [enzymelinked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) or latex agglutination].…”

Use of enzyme immunoassays and the latex agglutination test to measure the temporal appearance of immunoglobulin G and M antibodies after natural infection or immunization with rubella virus

“…However, the test is time-consuming, labor intensive, and difficult to standardize between laboratories. Several other antibody assays have recently been developed and tested, including radioimmunoassay (14), passive hemagglutination (3), single radial hemolysis in gel (5, 6), indirect immunofluorescence (5, 7), enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for immunoglobulin G (IgG) and IgM (8,11,21,22,26), and latex agglutination (LA) (13,24). These tests are rapid, simple, and usually require no pretreatment of sera; some now are available commercially in kit form.…”

Togaviridae: Rubella Virus

“…In addition, since the sensitivity of screening assays varies, occasional sera may have antibodies detectable by some techniques but not by others (Balfour et al, 1981;Best et al, 1980;Buimovici-Klein et al, 1980;Kleeman et al, 1983;Morgan-Capner, 1983). Many commercial assays have not been standardized, and it is difficult to determine the level of antibody in international units.…”