AEGiS-1IAC: COMPARISON OF THREE ASSAYS TO DETECT ANTIBODY TO HTLV-III

1st International AIDS Conference

Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.A. - April 14-17, 1985

COMPARISON OF THREE ASSAYS TO DETECT ANTIBODY TO HTLV-III

Int Conf AIDS. 1985 Apr 14-17;1:28 Abstract No. S9H

Jane P Getchell, JR Allen, B Kilbourne, C Bohan, DR Hicks, VS Kalyanaraman

Sensitive and specific assays for antibody to HTLV-III are essential for studies of AIDS and for screening in blood banks. AIDS Activity laboratories developed 3 assays--enzyme-linked Immunosorbent assay (ELISA), Western blot (WB), and radioimmunoprecipitationassay (RIP)—using purified antigen from CDC-451 strain of HTLV-III. Both WB and ELISA detected 77% of patients with AIDS or related conditions concordance between WB and ELISA was 92%. Preliminary data suggest ≥98% sensitivity for WB and ELISA in asymptomatic patients with probable HTLV-III infection. For all sera, concordance between WB and strongly reactive ELISA (absorbance >.300 OD) was 100% (SO/SO tests), but decreased as ELISA reactivitydecreased:6S% (11/17) for OD .200-.300; S6% (5/9) for OD.17S-.199; 40% (4/10) for OD .150-.174. Nonreactive ELISA (OD <150) had 92% concordance with negative WB (24/26). Specificity of ELISA in controls(no known risk for AIDS) was 9S%. Specificity of WB is being established; preliminary results suggest it is >95%. Comparable data are being developed for RIP. Both ELISA and WB are sensitive and specific tests useful for epidemiologic studies. Neither test by itself should be considered an established standard for comparison of other tests or for definitive diagnosis of HTLV-III infection in an individual.

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