An assay method for herpes simplex virus type 1 seroprevalence survey--detection of antibody in saliva by avidin-biotin complex enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ABC-ELISA).

To determine whether the avidin-biotin complex enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ABC-E) is a potentially useful method for detection of herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) antibody in saliva, paired serum and saliva samples from 129 healthy individuals aged 18 to 25 years were collected simultaneously and subjected to a neutralization test (NT) for neutralizing antibody and also to an indirect ELISA (IE) and ABC-E for HSV-1 specific IgG detection. Compared with the results of NT, the sensitivities of the IE and ABC-E for serum were both 100% (45/45), and for saliva 82.2% (37/45) and 93.3% (42/45), respectively. The specificity of all these methods was 100% (84/84). With the same ABC-E method, a significant correlation (r = 0.66, P < 0.001) between the OD-difference (d-OD) values of positive serum and saliva samples was observed. Furthermore, the consistency of ABC-E for salivary antibody detection was confirmed with the paired serum and saliva samples which were collected from four individuals followed up for eight months. It was clear that the ABC-E method for saliva can be used in place of the NT and ABC-E method for serum for seroprevalence studying of HSV-1 infection.