A comparison of three methods for detection of antibodies against the major core protein p24 of human immunodeficiency virus.
The native major core protein p24 of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) was immunoaffinity purified by a monoclonal antibody and used to develop an indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (inELISA) for detecting p24 antibodies in human sera. Its ability to detect p24 antibodies was compared to that of the immunoblotting test (IBT) and a commercial available competition ELISA (compELISA) employing recombinant HIV core protein. In tests on 60 serum samples the overall agreement of the inELISA and the IBT was 93.3%. Fifty-two samples were p24 antibody positive in both the inELISA and the IBT and of these 24 (46.2%) were positive in the compELISA. All compELISA positive samples were derived from healthy individuals, whereas of the 28 (53.8%) compELISA negative samples 1 was from a patient with acute HIV infection, 18 from healthy individuals and 9 from ARC/AIDS patients. The compELISA was able to distinguish among healthy persons with normal or low T-helper cell count (P = 0.048), as was the inELISA when p24 antibodies were titrated (P = 0.027). The inELISA equals IBT in specificity and sensitivity, is convenient and is very suitable for titration of p24 antibodies.
Lindhardt
B O
BO
Laboratory of Tumor Virology, Fibiger Institute, Copenhagen, Denmark.
Pedersen
C
C
Ulrich
K
K
Kusk
P
P
D000386:AIDS-Related Complex / Q000175:diagnosis; D000163:Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome / Q000175:diagnosis; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D015483:HIV Antibodies / Q000032:analysis*; D016655:HIV Core Protein p24; D015151:Immunoblotting; D012191:Retroviridae Proteins / Q000276:immunology*
D015483:HIV Antibodies; D016655:HIV Core Protein p24; D012191:Retroviridae Proteins