title: Comparison of three ELISA protocols to measure antibody responses elicited against serogroup C meningococcal polysaccharide in mouse, monkey and human sera.
abstract: In this study we compared the following ELISA protocols to measure antibody levels against serogroup C meningococcal polysaccharide: a traditional protocol using poly-L-Lysine mixed with the polysaccharide as coating antigen, a second protocol coating with a mixture of methylated human serum albumin with the C polysaccharide, a modified protocol coating with derivatized polysaccharide and a modification to the last one, specifically without adding ammonium thiocyanate to the sample buffer. Serum bactericidal activity of mouse, monkey and human sera were measured and correlation coefficients were calculated. For all serum types the modified ELISA protocol showed the highest correlation coefficients while the traditional protocol showed the lower ones. We demonstrated that the traditional protocol measures non-specific antibodies to the C polysaccharide, because no differences were detected between pre-immune and post-immune human sera (P>0.05), while the modified protocol detected the highest difference (P<0.01).
authors.affiliation: División de Vacunas, Centro de Ingeniería Genética y Biotecnología, Ciudad de La Habana, Cuba. guirolamaria@yahoo.com
authors.forename: María
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Guirola
authors.forename: Tania
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Carmenate
authors.forename: Tamara
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Menéndez
authors.forename: Anabel
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Alvarez
authors.forename: Sonia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: González
authors.forename: Gerardo
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Guillén
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000907:Antibodies, Bacterial / Q000096:biosynthesis* / Q000097:blood; D016667:Bacterial Capsules / Q000276:immunology; D002522:Chlorocebus aethiops; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008585:Meningitis, Meningococcal / Q000276:immunology* / Q000382:microbiology / Q000473:pathology; D022401:Meningococcal Vaccines / Q000276:immunology*; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D038542:Neisseria meningitidis, Serogroup C / Q000276:immunology*; D011135:Polysaccharides, Bacterial / Q000276:immunology; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D018074:Vaccines, Conjugate / Q000276:immunology
chemical_list: D000907:Antibodies, Bacterial; D022401:Meningococcal Vaccines; D011135:Polysaccharides, Bacterial; D018074:Vaccines, Conjugate