Demonstration of electrophoretically restricted virus-specific antibodies in serum and cerebrospinal fluid by imprint electroimmunofixation.

A sensitive technique for the electrophoretic characterization of virus-specific antibodies is described. Electrophoretically separated Ig is allowed to diffuse into a virus-antigen containing gel. The antibodies bound to viral antigen are then demonstrated by 125I-labelled rabbit antihuman Ig and autoradiography. Electrophoretically restricted antibodies against measles, rubella, mumps or herpes simplex viruses were demonstrated in some normal sera. The antibody patterns of normal cerebrospinal fluids (CSF) closely resembled those of the matching sera. A selective increase of oligoclonal antibodies was demonstrated in CSF from patients with infection of the central nervous system (CNS) caused by any of the four viruses. We propose that the method may be used to demonstrate local synthesis in the CNS of antibodies against viral or other antigens.