title: Prevalence of serum antibodies to herpes simplex virus types 1 and 2: application of an ELISA technique to 100 cases of anogenital herpes.
abstract: Sera of 100 patients affected by anogenital herpes were tested by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) technique using partially purified antigens obtained by extraction from the nuclei of infected Vero cells. Herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) was isolated from the anogenital lesions of 17 patients and herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2) from 83 patients. The relative proportions of antibody of the IgG class to HSV-1 and HSV-2 were determined and their ratio (R) was calculated, except for 23 patients for whom the corrected optical density (COD) obtained for HSV-1 or HSV-2 antibody was less than the lower value limit of 0.025. A predominance of HSV-2 antibody (R less than 1) was found in 40 patients and was uniformly associated with isolation of HSV-2, whereas a predominance of HSV-1 antibody (R greater than 1) in 37 patients was found in the presence of infection with HSV-1 in 11 (30%) and with HSV-2 in 26 (70%) patients. This study also confirms the association of a higher frequency of recurrences with HSV-2: among the 55 patients with recurrent herpes, those from whom HSV-2 was isolated had a history of more recurrences than those infected with HSV-1 (P less than 0.05; Mann and Whitney's nonparametric test). No correlation between the number of recurrences and the level of HSV-2 antibody was found.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Devillechabrolle
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Hugues-Dorin
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Fortier
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Catalan
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Huraux
mesh_terms: D000914:Antibodies, Viral / Q000032:analysis*; D001004:Anus Diseases / Q000276:immunology* / Q000382:microbiology; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D005260:Female; D006558:Herpes Genitalis / Q000276:immunology* / Q000382:microbiology; D006801:Humans; D007124:Immunoenzyme Techniques; D007074:Immunoglobulin G / Q000032:analysis; D008297:Male; D012008:Recurrence; D018139:Simplexvirus / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D000914:Antibodies, Viral; D007074:Immunoglobulin G