Immunosorbent binding bioassay: a solid phase biological immunoassay for the titration of antisera to alpha interferons.

An Immuno Sorbent Binding Bio-Assay (ISBBA) for the detection and the titration of antisera to the highly biologically active proteins, alpha interferons, is described. This method is similar to a classical solid phase immunoassay, except for the last step which uses the biological activity of the captured antigen. With specific serum antibodies the bound antigen prevents further virus induced cell lysis. On the contrary, with negative serum or preserum the antigen is washed out and virus induced cell lysis occurs, therefore no labelling is required. ISBBA exhibits three main differences when compared to the reference method i.e. the neutralization assay (NA): i) ISBBA is 10 to 1000 fold more sensitive than NA; ii) in contrast to NA, ISBBA is based on the production of an antiviral effect; iii) ISBBA makes it possible to use unpurified antigen. The applications of ISBBA to subtypes study in natural alpha interferon samples are discussed.