Description of a technique for the analysis of antineuraminidase antibodies oriented to H2N2 and H3N2 influenza virus strains.

A method for the analysis of mixtures of antineuraminidase (AN) antibodies oriented to antigenically different neuraminidases of H2N2 and H3N2 influenza virus strains is described. The method is based on the finding that the different classes of AN antibodies give different titer ratios when reacting with the recombinants A/Bel/42 (H0)-A/Sing/1/57 (N2) and A/equine/Prague/1/56 (Heg1)-A/Hong Kong/1/68 (N2) and a mixture of both recombinants. These titer ratios are determined under the experimental conditions of the photometric ACU (antibody concentration unit) method for a series of reference sera and test sera. By mathematical treatment of these data an exact analysis of AN antibodies of test sera is achieved. This paper gives a detailed description of the conduct of the test and summarizes the results of experiments to designed to assess the accuracy of analysis.