Serum antibodies to herpesvirus early antigens in patients with cervical carcinoma determined by anticomplement immunofluorescence technique.

Sera from patients with carcinoma of the uterine cervix were used with the anticomplement immunofluorescence (ACIF) technique to develop a simple procedure for detection of antibodies to herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2) early antigens. Test cells used in the ACIF assay were HEp-2 cells infected with HSV-2 sequentially treated with inhibitors of protein and of DNA SYNTHESIS. The cells were first treated for 7 h with cycloheximide (100 mug/ml) and then for 3 h with hydroxyurea (150 mug/ml). In this assay serum titers giving more than 21.5% ACIF-positive cells correlated to invasive carcinoma of the cervix. Using these criteria 18 out of 43 patients with invasive carcinoma, none of 8 patients with carcinoma in situ, and only 1 of 43 controls, were diagnosed as positive. Thus an elevated titer of antibodies against HSV-2 antigens correlated to cervical carcinoma.