Quantitation of enterovirus 70 antibody by microneutralization test and comparison with standard neutralization, hemagglutination inhibition, and complement fixation tests with different virus strains.

We describe here a microneutralization procedure for conveniently testing large numbers of specimens for antibodies to enterovirus 70. The test utilized human rhabdomyosarcoma cells and was read by staining with crystal violet after 4 days of incubation. The test compares well with other serological assays, being more sensitive than the standard tube neutralization test and the complement fixation test, but less sensitive than the hemagglutination inhibition test. However, the hemagglutination inhibition test required concentrated, partially purified virus as antigen, as did the complement fixation test, and was difficult to read, so that its greater sensitivity may not be of practical significance. By all four test procedures, a recent isolate of enterovirus 70 was a more sensitive antigen than the prototype strain, as shown by greater geometric mean titers in sera of patients from various epidemics.