title: Comparison of four different antigen-capture assays for the detection of human immunodeficiency virus antigen (HIV-Ag).
abstract: Three enzyme immunoassays (EIA), two polyclonal and one monoclonal, and one polyclonal radioimmunoassay (RIA) for the detection of human immunodeficiency virus antigen (HIV-Ag) have been evaluated and compared. The three EIAs had similar sensitivity in detecting HIV viral lysate and were more sensitive than the RIA, which was the only assay with a one-step probing-detection format. However, the EIA that used a monoclonal anti-p24 as the capturing reagent was unable to detect any of the serial supernatant samples of a positive viral culture from an HIV-infected patient. Only the two polyclonal, non-p24-restricted assays were able to detect an unusual expression of HIV-Ag in the serum of an acute HIV-infected patient. Overall, the sensitivity of HIV-Ag capture assays was enhanced when (a) the capture antibody was polyclonal rather than monoclonal, (b) the polyclonal antibody was broad rather than p24-restricted, and (c) the probing-detecting procedure was in a two-step format rather than one-step format. In addition, the use of neutralizing assays to confirm the results was absolutely necessary.
authors.affiliation: Department of Transfusion Medicine, Warren G. Magnuson Clinical Center, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Genesca
authors.forename: J W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Shih
authors.forename: J I
authors.initials: JI
authors.lastname: Esteban
authors.forename: H J
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Alter
mesh_terms: D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal; D015153:Blotting, Western; D006678:HIV / Q000276:immunology / Q000502:physiology; D015488:HIV Antigens / Q000032:analysis*; D006801:Humans; D007124:Immunoenzyme Techniques; D009500:Neutralization Tests; D011863:Radioimmunoassay; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D014776:Virus Cultivation
chemical_list: D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal; D015488:HIV Antigens