Use of a radioimmune assay in detection of measles antibodies in cerebrospinal fluid and serum.

Evidence that different structural components of the measles virus may act as antigens has been demonstrated by the serologic methods of hemagglutination inhibition, hemolysin inhibition and nucleocapsid complement fixation. Using radioiodinated measles viral antigens, an immune precipitation assay has been designed which is capable of discriminating varying reactivities to measles viral structural components in serum or CSF and of differentiating whether IgG and IgM antibody is involved. This technic has been applied to the study of measles antibodies in CSF and sera of patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) and other neurologic diseases. From data presented here, it is found that both groups of patients have individual reactivity to measles proteins, present in CSF and serum, while three normal CSF sample were not found to have such antibodies.