EVALUATION OF 14 COMMERCIAL HIV-1 HIV-2 ANTIBODY-ASSAYS USING SERUM PANELS OF DIFFERENT GEOGRAPHICAL ORIGIN AND CLINICAL STAGE INCLUDING A UNIQUE SEROCONVERSION PANEL/
R. Thorstensson et al., EVALUATION OF 14 COMMERCIAL HIV-1 HIV-2 ANTIBODY-ASSAYS USING SERUM PANELS OF DIFFERENT GEOGRAPHICAL ORIGIN AND CLINICAL STAGE INCLUDING A UNIQUE SEROCONVERSION PANEL/, Journal of virological methods, 70(2), 1998, pp. 139-151
Citations number
29
Categorie Soggetti
Virology,"Biochemical Research Methods","Biothechnology & Applied Migrobiology
The performance of 14 commercially available HIV-1/2 antibody assays w
ere compared using well-characterized serum panels containing in total
1500-1800 sera. The panels included consecutive HIV-negative blood do
nor sera from Sweden, unselected blood donor and patient sera from Tan
zania and unselected sera from outpatient clinics in Guinea-Bissau. Fu
rthermore selected HIV-1 antibody positive sera from Sweden and Tanzan
ia and HIV-2 antibody positive sera from Guinea-Bissau were included i
n the panels. The HIV-1 antibody positive sera were from individuals a
t various stages of HIV infection, from primary infection, to asymptom
atic phase and late stage disease. 12 of the 14 assays identified corr
ectly all HIV-1 and HIV-2 antibody positive sera. One Tanzanian HIV-1
antibody positive sample with complete banding pattern on Western blot
was not detected by two of the ELISAs employing synthetic peptides. T
here were small differences in sensitivity between the assays when use
d for analysis of seroconversion panels. The most sensitive assay, Abb
ott IMx HIV-1/HIV-2 III Plus detected antibodies in all nine samples c
ollected from four individuals during the first week after onset of sy
mptoms of primary HIV-1 infection. Most of the assays became reactive
during the second week after onset of symptoms and the least sensitive
assays were reactive from the third week. The assays showed a high sp
ecificity ranging from 99.2 to 100% when used for analysis of Swedish
blood donor sera, while most of the assays showed a significantly lowe
r specificity, 91.9-99.6%, when used for testing African specimens. (C
) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.