Calzolari M, Young E, Cox D, Davis D, Lutz H
Department of Internal Veterinary Medicine, University of Zurich, Switzerland.
Vet Immunol Immunopathol. 1995 May;46(1-2):83-92. doi: 10.1016/0165-2427(94)07008-u.
We developed an antibody detection enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) using recombinant surface (SU), transmembrane (TM) and capsid (CA) antigens of feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) expressed in Escherichia coli. The three antigens were tested with sera collected from experimentally infected cats in order to follow the course of seroconversion and of the antibody levels throughout the infection. An early and marked increase of TM antibodies was observed. Antibodies to TM were demonstrated at high levels throughout the observation period. The immune response to SU and to CA was less pronounced and in some cats the level of antibodies to SU and CA tended to decline 6 months after infection. In addition, 413 FIV negative and positive cat sera were tested in order to define for each antigen the diagnostic sensitivity, specificity and efficiency. TM showed the highest diagnostic sensitivity (98%) while its specificity was 97%. Its diagnostic efficiency of 97% was better than that of SU and CA and exceeded that of tests utilizing conventionally grown and gradient purified FIV. Therefore, recombinant TM can be considered a very important antigen for FIV ELISA testing. An interesting perspective is offered in the combination of TM with other recombinant antigens in a dot assay form.
我们利用在大肠杆菌中表达的猫免疫缺陷病毒（FIV）的重组表面（SU）、跨膜（TM）和衣壳（CA）抗原，开发了一种抗体检测酶联免疫吸附测定（ELISA）。用从实验感染猫身上采集的血清对这三种抗原进行检测，以追踪血清转化过程以及整个感染过程中抗体水平的变化。观察到TM抗体早期显著增加。在整个观察期内，TM抗体水平一直很高。对SU和CA的免疫反应不太明显，在一些猫中，感染6个月后，SU和CA抗体水平趋于下降。此外，对413份FIV阴性和阳性猫血清进行检测，以确定每种抗原的诊断敏感性、特异性和效率。TM显示出最高的诊断敏感性（98%），而其特异性为97%。其97%的诊断效率优于SU和CA，且超过了使用传统培养和梯度纯化FIV的检测方法。因此，重组TM可被视为FIV ELISA检测中非常重要的抗原。TM与其他重组抗原以斑点试验形式结合提供了一个有趣的前景。
