A rapid enzyme immunofiltration technique using monoclonal antibodies to serotype herpes simplex virus.

A rapid enzyme immunofiltration technique using monoclonal antibodies to serotype herpes simplex virus is described. It requires only a single tube culture showing viral cytopathology and can accommodate multiple specimens in a single assay. The monoclonal antibodies confer absolute specificity and the use of horseradish peroxidase-conjugated staphylococcal protein A or antiglobulin permits easy visual interpretation of the results following the 2-3 hour assay. Although it is possible that an occasional wild strain of HSV might escape recognition by monoclonal antibody, this potential problem has not been observed among the more than 500 clinical isolates tested to date, all of which have yielded an unequivocal result.