An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay using monoclonal antibodies for the detection of respiratory syncytial virus in clinical specimens.

An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) has been developed for the detection of respiratory syncytial virus in nasopharyngeal secretions. This assay employed as immunoreagents two monoclonal antibodies directed against two distinct epitopes of the viral nucleocapsid. One of them (RSV 4) was used for antigen capture and the other (NC 4) was labelled with N-hydroxy-succinimide-epsilon-caproil biotin and used for antigen detection. Streptavidin biotin-peroxidase complexes were employed as amplification mode. The immunoassay was performed in 6 hours and was able to detect as little as 1 ng/ml of purified nucleocapsid. When 87 nasopharyngeal secretions were analyzed by an indirect immunofluorescence assay using commercial reagents and by the newly developed ELISA, the sensitivity and the specificity of the two assays were found to be very similar.