COMPARATIVE-EVALUATION OF A SIMPLE AND SENSITIVE ASSAY FOR DETECTION OF ORTHOMYXO AND PARAMYXOVIRUSES

Studies were done to evaluate comparatively the traditional HA assay a nd a more recently introduced lectin-neuraminidase (LN) methodology in search of a simple and sensitive assay for virus detection during lab oratorial diagnosis. The results proved the value of LN assay as a sen sitive Methodology for detection of virus particles, presenting result s at least equal to those obtained by HA (hemagglutination) assay, wit h significant values of accumulated frequencies for LN/HA factors (rat ios between LN and HA titers) higher than two. The accumulated values of frequencies for LN/HA factors as high as four were very significant , 72.7% for influenzavirus and 60.7% for Newcastle disease virus (NDV) , moreover accumulated frequencies for LN/HA factors even as high as 3 2 were due to influenzavirus (45.4%) and NDV (7.2%) samples. After the storage period, most of those concentrated samples that even did not present HA titers could be detected through LN assay, demonstrating a lower threshold for virus detection.