title: Cost-Effective In-House Neutralization Assay for the Confirmation of HBeAg.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Hepatitis B virus-e-antigen (HBeAg) is an affordable viral marker to assess viral replication kinetics and response to antiviral therapy. In the absence of confirmatory assays, discrepant or false-positive HBeAg results are resolved by screening for other HBV markers. We standardized an in-house HBeAg neutralization assay (HBeAg-NT) to confirm HBeAg in clinical samples.
  
  
  METHODS
  The performance and reliability of this assay were evaluated by first WHO International Standard for HBeAg (first WHO-IS HBeAg) from Paul Ehrlich Institute and clinical samples (n = 150) from chronic HBV carriers. Of these, 71 HBeAg-positive sera were used for HBeAg-NT.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Concentrations spanning 0.25-10 U of first WHO-IS HBeAg and clinical samples (S/Co ranges from 1.00 to 10.00) were neutralized completely in the HBeAg-NT.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  HBeAg-NT is a simple, cost-effective, and reliable direct approach to confirm HBeAg in clinical samples which precludes the need for screening additional HBV markers in low resource settings.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Virology, Christian Medical College, Vellore, India.
authors.forename: Gnanadurai John
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Fletcher
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Virology, Christian Medical College, Vellore, India.
authors.forename: Raghavendran
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Anantharam
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Virology, Christian Medical College, Vellore, India.
authors.forename: Kalaivani
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Radhakrishnan
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Virology, Christian Medical College, Vellore, India.
authors.forename: Amaldev
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Karunakaran
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Virology, Christian Medical College, Vellore, India. priyaabraham@cmcvellore.ac.in.
authors.forename: Priya
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Abraham
mesh_terms: D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D005260:Female; D006514:Hepatitis B Surface Antigens / Q000097:blood*; D006515:Hepatitis B virus / Q000276:immunology*; D019694:Hepatitis B, Chronic / Q000175:diagnosis*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009500:Neutralization Tests / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards*; D012372:ROC Curve; D012189:Retrospective Studies
chemical_list: D006514:Hepatitis B Surface Antigens
keywords: HBeAg; cost effective; in-house neutralization assay