DETECTION OF RUBELLA-SPECIFIC IGM ANTIBODIES BY RADIOIMMUNOASSAY

  • 1 January 1978
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 59  (6) , 577-583
Abstract
An indirect solid-phase radioimmunoassay (RIA) was developed for the detection of immunoglobulin (Ig) class-specific rubella antibodies [Ab]. A commercial rubella hemagglutinin is dried and fixed on to the wells of flexible microtiter plates and allowed to react with serial dilutions of whole or fractionated human sera. Class-specific rubella Ab are detected by determining the specific binding of 125I-labeled anti-human IgG or IgM. The RIA was evaluated by comparison with the hemagglutination-inhibition (HI) test for the detection of rubella-specific IgM in gel-filtration fractions. RIA was as specific as HI, but 10-150 times more sensitive. Rubella-specific IgG Ab did not interfere in specific IgM determinations by RIA and the latter technique was applied to unfractionated sera. RIA on unfractionated sera may be a practical, sensitive and specific technique which could provide a reliable method for rubella diagnosis. The rubella-specific IgM titers obtained by RIA were not increased by the removal of IgG by pre-treatment of sera with staphylococcal Protein A.